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Nonpareil Cordial

A fruit cordial made from pineapples, greengages, pears, sugar, water, and gooseberry brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 169 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Nonpareil Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel and finely mince the pineapples, greengages, and pears, ensuring to collect all the juice.

Make the cordial

  1. For each pound of fruit, add 1.5 pounds of sugar and ¾ pint of water.

  2. Simmer the mixture for 45 minutes, skimming occasionally.

  3. Strain the mixture carefully and let it cool completely.

  4. Once cool, add 6 quarts of gooseberry brandy or ordinary brandy.

Bottle and rest

  1. Bottle the cordial, cork it tightly, and store in a cool place for 6 weeks before use.

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. Pineapple + peartop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Pear + gooseberrytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pineapple + gooseberrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl isobutyrate (flower).

  4. Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,079 recipes

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

  5. Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the cordial and, with the fruit, helps build its body and syrupy texture.
Gooseberry brandy
Adds alcohol that preserves the cordial and carries the fruit aroma.
Pineapples
Supply the main fruit flavour and juice that makes up the bulk of the cordial.
Pears
Add mellow fruit sweetness and juice to the base.
Greengages
Contribute sweet-tart fruit flavour and juice to the base.

The step that matters

Cooling before adding the brandy. Adding spirit to a hot syrup can drive off aroma and make the mixture harder to control. Letting it cool completely first keeps the brandy's flavour intact and lets the mixture settle before bottling.

Swap the gooseberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Gooseberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, pear, 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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