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Blackberry Jelly for Sickness

A blackberry jelly made with juice, sugar, spices, and brandy, used as a remedy for sickness.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Blackberry Jelly for Sickness

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. In a pot, combine blackberry juice, sugar, and pulverized spices.

  2. Boil the mixture for 15 to 20 minutes.

Cool and finish

  1. Allow the mixture to cool.

  2. Once cooled, stir in the brandy.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberry juice
Forms the liquid base and provides the main fruit flavor and color.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the juice thicken into a jelly as it cooks.
Brandy
Adds warm aroma and flavor that depends on it being added after cooking.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the jelly.

The step that matters

Stir in the brandy only after cooling. Alcohol evaporates quickly when heated, so the brandy's aroma and flavor fade if it is added to the boiling mixture. Waiting until the mixture has cooled keeps more of its character in the finished jelly.

Swap the blackberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Blackberrythe original

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