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Ratafia, Common
Blanch four ounces of bitter almonds, and chop them very small. Throw them into a mortar with half a grain of ambergris, three ounces of sugar, and half an ounce of grated nutmeg; then pound all thoroughly together. Put the mixture into a stone jar, pour a quart of good spirit over it, cover closely, and let it remain in a warm place for a fortnight. Filter through a strainer lined with blotting-paper, put the ratafia into small bottles, cork these securely, and store for use. Sufficient for one quart of ratafia.
This is a home-infused cordial built on bitter almonds, and that single ingredient puts it out of reach of a modern kitchen. The notes below explain what the recipe is doing and why it cannot be reproduced.
- Bitter almonds are the problemBitter almonds contain amygdalin, which releases hydrogen cyanide when the nuts are crushed and moistened — exactly what pounding in a mortar and steeping in spirit accomplishes. Four ounces of them, unheated and untreated, is a serious quantity of cyanide precursor, and the sale of raw bitter almonds is restricted or banned in many countries for precisely this reason. Sweet almonds are not a substitute: they carry none of the flavour the recipe is after.
- No heating stepCommercial bitter almond oil and almond extract are made safe by processing that drives off or removes the hydrogen cyanide. Nothing in this method does that. The cold two-week maceration extracts the compound into the spirit and keeps it there.
- AmbergrisA waxy secretion of the sperm whale, once used in perfumery and confectionery as a fixative and aromatic. Trade in it is illegal in the United States under marine mammal and endangered species law, though it remains legal in the UK and elsewhere; half a grain — about 32 milligrams — is a perfumer's dose rather than a cook's.
- Units, for reading the recipeA grain is roughly 65 mg; a quart in an English book of this vintage is 40 fl oz, about 1.14 litres, not the 32 fl oz US quart. "Good spirit" is not specified further; in books of this period it could mean brandy or a plain spirit, typically stronger than modern 40 percent vodka.
- Blotting-paper as a filterPeriod blotting paper was unsized cotton-rag stock and worked as a coarse filter medium for cloudy cordials.
- If you want the flavourUse a current, tested recipe for an almond cordial based on food-grade almond extract or commercially produced bitter almond oil, both of which are formulated to be safe at culinary dose.
Ratafia is the general European name for a sweetened cordial made by steeping fruit, kernels or spices in spirit, and it was one of the standard products of a well-run still-room from the seventeenth century onward — the etymology is disputed, though it is often traced to the Latin rata fiat, a phrase said to have been used in confirming an agreement over a drink. The almond-kernel version seems to have been among the more familiar types in Britain, and its flavour is the one still carried by the word in ratafia biscuits, the small hard almond macaroons served with creams and trifles. That the flavour came from bitter almonds, apricot kernels or peach stones was well understood; that these all release cyanide when crushed was known too, at least to chemists, but the doses were treated casually in domestic books like Cassell's, which reflect a period when the still-room recipe passed down largely unexamined. The ambergris is a survival of an older, richer style of cordial-making, when perfumery and cookery shared a shelf.