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Blackberry Cordial

A sweet blackberry cordial made by boiling blackberry juice with sugar and spices, then adding brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Blackberry Cordial

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 Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine 2 quarts of blackberry juice, 1 pound of white sugar, ½ ounce of ground cinnamon, and ½ ounce of ground cloves.

  2. Boil the mixture for a short time.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool, then stir in 1 pint of 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Blackberry + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Blackberry + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Blackberry juice
Forms the liquid base and provides the main fruit flavour and colour.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the blackberry juice.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma to the cordial.
Ground cloves
Adds strong, warm spice aroma and a pungent note.
Brandy
Adds alcohol and aromatic depth, and helps preserve the cordial.

The step that matters

Stir in the brandy after cooling. Alcohol is volatile, so adding brandy to a hot mixture lets much of its aroma and alcohol evaporate. Cooling first keeps the brandy's flavour in the finished cordial.

Swap the blackberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Blackberrythe 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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