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Rose Cordial

A rose-infused cordial made with rose leaves, water, brandy, sugar, coriander, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,635 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Rose Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Infuse the rose leaves in lukewarm water for two days in a covered vessel.

  2. Squeeze the mixture through a linen bag to extract all the liquid.

Blend and rest

  1. Measure the rose infusion and add an equal amount of white brandy.

  2. Stir in ½ pound of loaf sugar, along with a small amount of coriander and cinnamon.

  3. Pour the mixture into a jug and let it sit for two weeks.

  4. Filter the cordial through blotting paper and transfer it into bottles.

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. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Brandy + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Rose + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together892 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Rose + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together560 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Red rose leaves
Provide the main floral aroma and flavour of the cordial.
White brandy
Acts as a preservative and extracts additional aroma from the infusion.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the strong floral and alcoholic notes.

The step that matters

Squeezing the infusion through the linen bag. Pressing the leaves extracts the liquid they hold, but over-squeezing can push through plant bitterness and cloudiness. Letting the liquid drain naturally first keeps the cordial clearer and smoother.

Swap the coriander

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rose, brandy, sugar, cinnamon. 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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