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Blackberry Cordial

A sweet blackberry cordial made by boiling berries, straining, sweetening, adding cinnamon, and infusing with brandy or whiskey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Blackberry Cordial

Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Blackberry Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Place the blackberries in a kettle with a small amount of water.

  2. Boil the berries until soft, then strain through a bag to separate the juice from the seeds.

Make the cordial

  1. Return the juice to the fire and sweeten to taste with white sugar.

  2. Add a bag of stick cinnamon and boil for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in brandy or whiskey to your desired strength.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the cordial and seal with wax.

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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

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 flavour and colour, and the juice that forms the cordial's base.
White sugar
Sweetens the juice and balances the tartness of the blackberries.
Stick cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and spice flavour to the cordial as it boils.
Brandy or whiskey
Adds alcohol, which gives strength and helps preserve the cordial.

The step that matters

Straining the boiled berries. Straining through a bag separates the juice from the seeds and pulp. If the berries are not boiled until soft, less juice is released and the strained liquid will be thin and weak in colour and flavour.

“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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