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Blackberry 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
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Blackberry Cordial

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 Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Tie the spices in thin muslin bags.

Make the cordial

  1. Boil the blackberry juice, sugar, and spice bags together for 15 minutes, skimming well.

  2. Add the brandy and set aside in a covered vessel to cool.

  3. Once cool, strain out the spices and bottle the cordial, sealing the corks.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Allspice + clovetop 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
Provides the main fruit flavour and liquid base of the cordial.
White sugar
Sweetens the cordial and balances the tartness of the juice.
Brandy
Adds alcohol, which helps preserve the cordial and carries the spice aroma.
Grated nutmeg
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour infused during boiling.
Powdered cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet spice aroma infused during boiling.

The step that matters

Skimming while boiling. Boiling the juice, sugar and spices for 15 minutes lets foam and impurities rise to the surface. Skimming them off keeps the cordial clear and clean-tasting. Removing the spices after cooling prevents the flavour from becoming bitter or overly strong.

Swap the blackberry

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

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

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