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Raspberry Cordial

A sweet raspberry cordial made with raspberries, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Extract the juice

  1. Squeeze the raspberries through a flannel bag to extract the juice.

Steep and bottle

  1. Combine the juice with the sugar in a stone jar, stirring frequently for the first day.

  2. Allow the mixture to stand for three days, then strain through a sieve.

  3. Add 1 quart of brandy to each quart of prepared juice.

  4. Bottle the cordial 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.

  1. 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
Provide the main flavor, aroma, and tartness of the cordial.
Sugar
Sweetens the juice and balances its natural acidity.
Brandy
Adds alcohol, which helps keep the cordial stable during storage.

The step that matters

Adding the brandy in the right ratio. Brandy is added at one quart per quart of juice. Alcohol strength is what helps keep the cordial from spoiling, so measuring the juice before adding the brandy matters.

“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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