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Black-berry Cordial, Another

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Black-berry Cordial, Another

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cordial

  1. Combine blackberry juice, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace, cloves, and allspice in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool.

Finish and store

  1. Once cool, stir in the French brandy.

  2. For longer storage, add a little more brandy if keeping for over a year.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 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
Provides the main fruit flavour, colour and liquid base of the cordial.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and body, and helps preserve the cordial.
French brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the cordial and carries the spice aroma.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet spice aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling the mixture for 20 minutes. Boiling dissolves the sugar fully and extracts flavour from the whole spices into the juice. Adding brandy only after the mixture has cooled keeps its alcohol from evaporating off during boiling, so the cordial keeps its strength.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

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