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Blackberry Cordial

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

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

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Blackberry Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Make the juice

  1. Wash the blackberries.

  2. Boil them in a preserving kettle for a few minutes.

  3. Cool and strain the juice through a thin cloth.

Sweeten and spice

  1. Add 1 ½ cups of sugar, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon to the juice.

  2. Boil the mixture for fifteen minutes.

Finish and bottle

  1. When cold, stir in 1 cup of brandy.

  2. Seal securely in 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.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  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 main fruit juice, which gives the cordial its flavour and deep colour.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the juice and helps preserve the cordial.
French brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the cordial and contributes warmth of flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for fifteen minutes. Boiling the sweetened juice concentrates its flavour and reduces the chance of spoilage by killing microbes. Stirring in the brandy only after the mixture cools keeps its alcohol from boiling off, so its flavour and preserving effect stay in the finished cordial.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Clovefits about as well
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, 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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