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Coriander Cordial

A cordial made by macerating coriander seeds, orange peel, cloves, and caraway seeds in spirit, then sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 185 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓

Coriander Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Macerate the bruised coriander seeds, dried orange peel, cloves, and caraway seeds in the proof spirit for one week.

  2. After a week, add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

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. Coriander + carawaytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together185 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + carawaytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Coriander + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Coriander + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Coriander seeds
Provide the main aromatic flavor, released into the spirit during steeping; bruising exposes more surface.
Proof spirit
Acts as the solvent that extracts aromatic and flavor compounds from the botanicals.
Dried orange peel
Adds citrusy aroma and a light bitter note that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body, softening the strong spirit and botanical flavors.

The step that matters

Macerating the botanicals in spirit for a week. Alcohol draws aromatic oils and flavor compounds out of the seeds and peel slowly. Bruising the seeds increases their surface area, which speeds extraction. Too short a steep leaves the flavor weak, and the full week gives a fuller, more rounded result.

Swap the coriander

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

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

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