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Blackberry Cordial

A sweet blackberry cordial made with sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Blackberry Cordial

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Blackberry Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Mash the blackberries with a wooden spoon or potato masher.

  2. Pour the mashed blackberries into a jelly bag and squeeze out the juice.

  3. In a preserving kettle, combine the juice with the sugar.

Cook and finish

  1. Heat the mixture until the sugar is melted, then add the cloves and cinnamon.

  2. Boil the mixture until it reaches a thin jelly consistency.

  3. Once cooled, add the brandy and stir well.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and bottle the cordial for 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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Clove + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Blackberries
Provide the main fruit flavour, colour and the juice that forms the cordial.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and thickens the juice into a syrupy, jelly-like consistency when boiled.
French brandy
Adds alcohol that preserves the cordial and contributes warmth to its flavour.
Cloves
Contribute a warm, pungent aroma to the cordial.
Cinnamon stick
Contributes a sweet, warm aroma to the cordial.

The step that matters

Boil to a thin jelly consistency. Boiling concentrates the sugar and fruit juice so the syrup thickens as it cools. Stopping too early leaves it thin and runny, while overcooking makes it too thick and may cause sugar to crystallise.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits less well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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