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Ratafia, Apricot
Ratafia of apricots is prepared in two ways--namely, either by boiling the apricots in white wine, adding to the liquor an equal quantity of brandy, with sugar, cinnamon, mace, and the kernels of apricots, infusing the whole for eight or ten days, then straining the liquor, and putting it up for use; or by infusing the apricots, cut in pieces, in brandy for a day or two, passing it through a straining bag, and then putting in the usual ingredients.
The structure here is a standard cordial: fruit steeped in wine or spirit, sweetened and spiced, then strained and bottled. The problem is the apricot kernels, which are the one ingredient this recipe cannot do without and the one that rules it out.
- The kernels are the hazardApricot stones contain amygdalin, a cyanogenic glycoside that releases hydrogen cyanide when the kernel is crushed, chewed or held in moisture. In both methods the kernels go into the liquor cold and sit in spirit for eight or ten days, which draws the compound into the drink.
- No dose is stated"The kernels of apricots" gives no count, no weight, and no indication of whether they are whole, bruised or ground. Amygdalin content varies widely between varieties, so even a careful cook working from this text has no way to know what is in the bottle.
- Cyanide is not detectable by taste in the way people assumeThe bitter-almond note that kernels contribute is the flavour the recipe is after, which means the marker of danger and the marker of success are the same thing. A pleasant, correctly flavoured ratafia offers no reassurance about dose.
- Concentration works against youStraining removes fruit solids but not dissolved compounds, so whatever the kernels have given up stays in the bottle, and it is drunk in repeated small glasses over months rather than eaten once.
- The rest of the method is unremarkableBoiling fruit in white wine, cutting it with an equal volume of brandy, and spicing with cinnamon and mace is sound period practice; "putting it up" simply means bottling and corking for storage. Nothing else in the procedure is the issue.
- If you want the flavourUse a current recipe for apricot cordial or ratafia that relies on the fruit flesh and a commercial bitter-almond or benzaldehyde flavouring, where the aromatic compound is supplied at a controlled level.
Ratafia was one of the great categories of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century still-room: a sweetened, spiced infusion of fruit in brandy or fortified wine, drunk in cordial glasses after dinner and used freely in the kitchen to flavour creams, custards and the little dry almond biscuits that took the same name. Its defining note was the bitter-almond perfume, obtained from peach or apricot kernels, bitter almonds, or cherry stones; the origin of the word itself is uncertain, though it is often said to come through French from the Caribbean, where cordials of this sort were supposedly drunk to seal an agreement. Two methods are given because both were in circulation, one relying on wine and heat and the other on cold spirit alone. That the kernels are called for without any quantity reflects how ordinary the practice was at the time; the toxicity of cyanogenic glycosides was understood in the nineteenth century, but the doses involved in domestic flavouring were not treated as the household's business, and the instruction is passed on without comment.