Name: Raspberry Cordial
Ingredients: 4 cups raspberries; 1 pound loaf sugar; 4 cups brandy

Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Raspberry Cordial

Ingredients

4 cups raspberries
1 pound loaf sugar
4 cups brandy

Directions

Prepare the juice

Squeeze the raspberries through a flannel bag to extract the juice.
In a stone jar, combine the raspberry juice and sugar, stirring frequently for the first day.
Let the mixture stand for three days.
Strain the mixture through a sieve.

Finish and bottle

Add the brandy to the prepared juice and bottle for 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.

Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Raspberries: Supply the main flavour and colour, with their juice forming the base of the cordial.
Loaf sugar: Sweetens the juice and helps draw out and preserve its flavour as it stands.
Brandy: Adds alcohol that preserves the cordial and carries its aroma.

“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.