Name: Ginger Cordial
Ingredients: 1 pound picked currants (red or black); 1 quart whiskey; 1 ounce bruised ginger; ½ pound sugar

Why it works: Ginger and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Ginger Cordial

Ingredients

1 pound picked currants (red or black)
1 quart whiskey
1 ounce bruised ginger
½ pound sugar

Directions

Infuse

Combine currants, whiskey, and bruised ginger in a stone jar.
Let the mixture stand for 24 to 36 hours.
Strain the mixture through a flannel bag.

Sweeten and bottle

Add sugar to the strained liquid and stir until melted.
Bottle the ginger cordial.

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.

Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Currant + gingertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together834 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,256 recipes

Ginger and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Currants: Provide fruit juice and colour, giving the cordial body and a tart, fruity flavour.
Whiskey: Extracts flavour from the ginger and currants and acts as a preservative in the cordial.
Ginger: Supplies the warm, spicy aroma and flavour that defines the cordial.
Sugar: Sweetens the cordial and balances the tartness of the currants and the bite of the spirit.