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Ginger Cordial

A homemade ginger cordial made by steeping grapes, ginger, lemons, and almond extract in alcohol and water, then sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ginger Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Steeping

  1. Combine alcohol, water, grapes, ginger root, lemons, and almond extract in a stone crock.

  2. Mash the mixture with a wooden potato masher each day for 9 days.

Strain and bottle

  1. After 9 days, strain the mixture and add the granulated sugar.

  2. Let it stand for 24 hours, then strain through muslin cloth and bottle.

  3. This cordial improves with age.

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. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Grape + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  3. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Ginger + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Grape + gingertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Alcohol
Extracts flavour from the fruit and ginger and helps preserve the cordial.
Concord grapes
Provide fruit flavour, colour and juice as the mixture is mashed.
White ginger root
Supplies the sharp, warm ginger flavour that carries the cordial.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cordial and balances the alcohol and acidity.

The step that matters

Daily mashing for 9 days. Mashing breaks open the grape skins and ginger so the alcohol can draw out colour and flavour. Skipping days leaves flavour under-extracted, so the cordial tastes thin.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, lemon, almond, sugar):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, lemon, almond, 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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