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Black Currant Cordial

A homemade black currant cordial made by macerating currants in whiskey, adding sugar and cloves, then bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Black Currant Cordial

Why it works: Black currant and clove share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 40 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Black Currant Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Combine black currants and whiskey in a jar.

  2. Let the mixture sit for four months, shaking occasionally.

Finish and bottle

  1. After four months, drain and strain the liquid.

  2. Add sugar and bruised cloves to the strained liquid.

  3. Bottle the mixture well and seal.

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. Black currant + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Black currant + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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

Black currants
Provide the main fruit flavour and colour as they steep in the whiskey.
Whiskey
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour and colour from the currants and preserves the cordial.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the currants and the strength of the spirit.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour to the infused liquid.

The step that matters

Let the mixture sit for four months, shaking occasionally. Flavour and colour are extracted slowly from the currants into the alcohol, so cutting the infusion short leaves the cordial weak and pale. Shaking helps keep the fruit in contact with the liquid.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (black currant, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against black currant, sugar. 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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