Skip to main content
Drink

Blackberry or Dewberry Cordial

A sweet blackberry cordial made with blackberry juice, sugar, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 or Dewberry Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine blackberry juice, sugar, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon in a covered saucepan.

  2. Simmer for 30 minutes to prevent evaporation.

  3. Let cool, then strain through a cloth.

  4. Add the brandy and mix well.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 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
Provides the main fruit flavour, colour and liquid base of the cordial.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and body, balancing the tartness of the blackberry juice.
French brandy
Adds alcohol that preserves the cordial and carries the spice aromas.
Ground cloves
Contributes warm, pungent aroma to the spiced syrup.
Ground cinnamon
Contributes sweet, woody aroma that complements the blackberry flavour.

The step that matters

Covered simmering. Simmering in a covered saucepan keeps the juice and spice aromas from evaporating away, so the cordial keeps its fruit and spice character. Cooling before adding the brandy matters too, because alcohol added to hot liquid evaporates and weakens its aroma.

Swap the blackberry

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

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

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

You might also like

Cinnamon TinctureCinnamon Tincture10 recipesVegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipes