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Dessert

Blackberry Syrup

A sweet syrup made by simmering blackberries with sugar, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the juice

  1. Place the blackberries in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Simmer until the berries break apart.

  3. Strain the mixture through a flannel cloth.

Make the syrup

  1. For each pint of juice, add 1 pound of sugar, powdered cinnamon, powdered mace, and powdered cloves.

  2. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture again.

  4. Cool the mixture.

  5. Add ⅓ cup of brandy for each pint of syrup.

Bottle and store

  1. Bottle, cork, and seal the syrup.

  2. Store the syrup in a cool place.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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 fruit juice that forms the base of the syrup and its flavor.
White sugar
Sweetens the syrup and, when boiled, thickens it into a syrup texture.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the syrup and contributes a warm flavor.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 15 minutes. Boiling dissolves the sugar fully and concentrates the juice into a syrup. Under-boiling leaves it thin and less stable on storage.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, clove, 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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