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Drink

Cordial Waters

A flavored liqueur made by steeping spices, dried fruit, and herbs in brandy, then distilling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and sage share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 21 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Steep

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large stone jar, then add 3 gallons of French brandy.

  2. Cover the jar tightly and let it sit near a fire for 3 weeks, stirring the mixture three times a week and keeping it tightly sealed.

  3. After 3 weeks, strain the liquid into bottles.

Finish and distill

  1. Pour another bottle of French brandy over the remaining ingredients and let it sit for 1 week, stirring once a day.

  2. Distill the mixture in a cold still.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Fig + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Saffron + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + macetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Coriander + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together872 recipes

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

  5. Cardamom + nutmegtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together249 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

French brandy
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour and aroma from the botanicals.
Figs
Add sweetness and body to the infused spirit.
Raisins
Add sweetness and body to the infused spirit.
Liquorice
Adds a sweet, earthy flavour to the infusion.
Saffron
Contributes aroma and a golden colour to the infusion.
Cochineal
Provides a red colour to the infusion.

The step that matters

Keeping the jar tightly sealed during steeping. Alcohol evaporates easily, and a loose lid lets aromatic compounds and alcohol escape over the weeks of infusion, weakening the flavour and changing the strength of the final spirit.

Flavor stand-ins for the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (saffron, anise, coriander, cardamom, fig, nutmeg, mace):

  1. Limebetter flavor fit
  2. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  3. Orangebetter flavor fit
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against saffron, anise, coriander, cardamom, fig, nutmeg, mace. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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