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Whiskey Cordial

A citrus and fruit infused whiskey sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger 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 ↓

Whiskey Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Place the lemon rind, white currants, and ginger in a jar.

  2. Pour the whiskey over the ingredients and let them infuse for 24 hours.

Sweeten and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture and sweeten with loaf sugar.

  2. Let it stand for another 12 hours before bottling.

  3. Cork the bottle securely.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  2. Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Lemon + white curranttop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. White currant + sugartop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together59 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

Whiskey
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour and aroma from the rind, fruit and ginger.
Lemon rind
Contributes aromatic oils and bright citrus flavour during the infusion.
White currants
Add fruity flavour and a gentle tartness to the spirit.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the alcohol and the fruit's acidity.
Ginger
Adds warm, spicy aroma and a subtle heat to the infusion.

The step that matters

Straining before sweetening. Strain fully so no solids remain, since leftover fruit and rind keep releasing flavour and can cloud or sour the cordial during standing. Sugar dissolves more readily in a clear liquid, so sweeten after straining.

Swap the white currant

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. White currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, ginger, 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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