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Brandy Gages

Green gages preserved in syrup and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Brandy Gages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Wash and dry the green gages.

  2. Prick them on opposite sides.

  3. If the skins are tough, remove them.

  4. Pack them in bottles or jars with wide mouths.

Make the syrup and fill

  1. Prepare a rich syrup and let it cool to boiling heat.

  2. Mix one part syrup with two parts brandy thoroughly.

  3. Fill the bottles with the mixture, cork, and seal them tightly.

  4. If any syrup is left, bottle it for future use.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green gages
Provide the fruit, whose flesh and juice soften and flavour the brandy during steeping.
Sugar
Makes the rich syrup, adding sweetness and body to the finished liquid.
Brandy
Acts as the preserving liquid, extracting fruit flavour and keeping the gages covered.

The step that matters

Mix one part syrup with two parts brandy thoroughly. The syrup should be warm, not hot, and fully blended with the brandy so the sugar dissolves evenly and the mixture is uniform before it goes into the bottles.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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