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Blackberry Cordial

A sweet blackberry cordial made with blackberry juice, sugar, spices, and French brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Blackberry Cordial

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Blackberry Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine blackberry juice, loaf sugar, grated nutmegs, ground cloves, ground allspice, and ground cinnamon in a tightly closed saucepan to prevent evaporation.

  2. Heat the mixture until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Allow to cool, then strain through a cloth.

  4. Add 1 pint of the best French brandy.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberry juice
Provides the main fruit flavour, colour and liquid base of the cordial.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the cordial and helps preserve it along with the brandy.
French brandy
Adds alcohol that preserves the cordial and carries the spice aroma.
Ground cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet spice aroma that complements the blackberry flavour.

The step that matters

Heat until the sugar dissolves in a closed saucepan. Heating dissolves the sugar fully so the cordial is evenly sweet. A tightly closed pan keeps the volatile juice and spice aromas from evaporating away during heating.

Swap the blackberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, nutmeg, clove, allspice, cinnamon, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Blackberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nutmeg, clove, allspice, cinnamon, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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