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Strawberry Cordial

A fruit cordial made by steeping strawberries in apple brandy and sweetening with sugar or syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Strawberry Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Macerate and press

  1. Combine 1 gallon apple brandy with 4 quarts strawberries in a container.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours, then press through a cotton bag.

  3. Add 4 more quarts strawberries, let stand for another 24 hours, then press again.

Sweeten

  1. For each quart of cordial, add 1 pound of sugar or sweeten with syrup.

  2. To make syrup, boil 2 pounds sugar, 1 pint water, and the whipped egg white together.

  3. Once cooled, mix 1 pint syrup with each quart cordial.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Apple brandy + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apple brandy + eggtop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Apple brandy
Acts as the alcohol base that extracts and preserves the strawberry flavour.
Strawberries
Provide the main fruit flavour, colour and aroma of the cordial.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the alcohol and fruit acidity.
Egg white
Whipped into the syrup, it helps clarify it by binding impurities that are skimmed off.

The step that matters

Pressing after each 24-hour stand. Pressing through cotton removes the fruit solids so the cordial stays clear. Leaving solids in can cloud the liquid and add bitterness over time.

“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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