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Blackberry Cordial

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Blackberry Cordial

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Blackberry Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Simmer blackberries until they break down.

  2. Strain the mixture to extract the juice.

  3. Add 1 pound of sugar, 1/2 ounce of cinnamon, 1/4 ounce of mace, and 2 teaspoons of extract of cloves to each pint of juice.

  4. Boil for 15 minutes.

  5. Let cool, then add a little brandy if desired.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Blackberries
Provide the juice and main fruit flavour that forms the base of the cordial.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and body, and helps preserve the juice.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma.
Mace
Adds a warm, nutmeg-like spice aroma.
Extract of cloves
Adds a strong, pungent clove aroma.

The step that matters

Boil for 15 minutes. Boiling concentrates the juice and dissolves the sugar fully, while the spices release their aroma. Boiling too briefly leaves the syrup thin and less stable, and boiling too long can make it overly thick and dull in flavour.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, 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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