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Spiced Blackberry Cordial

A sweet, spiced blackberry liqueur made with blackberry juice, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brandy.

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

Spiced Blackberry Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine blackberry juice and white sugar in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture. Skim off any foam.

  3. Add the ground cloves, ground cinnamon, and grated nutmegs.

  4. Continue boiling until the mixture thickens.

Finish the cordial

  1. Let the mixture cool and settle.

  2. Drain off the liquid.

  3. Stir in the brandy.

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. 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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Blackberry + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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 liquid base of the cordial.
White sugar
Sweetens the cordial and, with boiling, thickens it into a syrup.
Ground cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma.
Grated nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that preserves the cordial and carries its aroma.

The step that matters

Continue boiling until the mixture thickens. Boiling concentrates the juice and sugar as water evaporates, so the cordial thickens into a syrup. Stopping too early leaves it thin, and it may spoil more readily once bottled.

Swap the blackberry

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

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

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