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German Lemon Cordial

A citrus liqueur made by infusing oranges with cloves, mace, and alcohol, then sweetened with sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,987 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

German Lemon Cordial

twenty quarts total

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Infuse the oranges, cloves, and mace in the alcohol and water for ten days.

  2. Strain the mixture.

Finish

  1. Add sugar syrup to make a total of twenty quarts.

  2. Color the mixture yellow and filter it.

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. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  5. Orange + macetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,043 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Oranges
Supply citrus flavor and aroma to the infused liquid.
Cloves
Add a warm, pungent spice aroma during the long infusion.
Mace
Adds a delicate spiced aroma to the cordial.
Double proof alcohol
Acts as the solvent that draws flavor and aroma compounds out of the fruit and spices.
Sugar syrup
Adds sweetness to balance the strong alcohol.

The step that matters

Infuse the oranges, cloves, and mace for ten days. Alcohol extracts flavor and aroma compounds slowly from citrus peel and spices. Stopping early leaves the cordial weak and unbalanced, so the full infusion time matters.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, clove, sugar, syrup):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, clove, sugar, syrup. 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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