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Clove Cordial

A fragrant cordial made by infusing cassia buds, bruised cloves, peppercorns, mace, and sugar in spirit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cassia and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 194 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Clove Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Combine cassia buds, bruised cloves, peppercorns, and mace in a bottle.

  2. Pour a little hot water over the mixture and cork the bottle tightly.

  3. Place the bottle near the fire for 48 hours.

Finish the cordial

  1. Strain the liquid into 3 pints of spirit.

  2. Stir in the sugar until dissolved.

  3. Add cochineal for color 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.

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. Cassia + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cassia + macetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Clove + spirittop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Cassia + spirittop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cloves
Provides the main warm, aromatic spice flavor of the cordial.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and rounds out the sharp edge of the spirit.
Spirit
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavor from the spices.

The step that matters

Corking the bottle tightly during infusion. A tight seal keeps the alcohol and aromatic compounds from evaporating during the 48 hours, so the spice flavor stays concentrated in the liquid.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cassia, clove, spirit, 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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