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Blackberry Cordial

A sweet blackberry syrup made by boiling juice with sugar and spices.

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

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 cordial

  1. In a pot, combine blackberry juice and white sugar.

  2. Add cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  3. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes.

Bottle and store

  1. Bottle the cordial while hot, then cork and seal.

  2. Store in small bottles to prevent fermentation.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberry juice
Provides the main fruit flavor and deep color of the cordial.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the cordial by binding its water.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma that rounds out the fruit.
Cloves
Contributes a strong, pungent aroma that flavors the whole cordial.

The step that matters

Bottle while hot, then cork and seal. Sealing the cordial hot traps heat and limits air, while the high sugar content slows microbial growth. If the seal is poor or the bottles are left open, the cordial can ferment, so small bottles that are used up quickly help reduce that risk.

Swap the blackberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Blackberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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