Skip to main content
Drink

Ginger Cordial

A cordial made from currants, ginger, almonds, lemons, bourbon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ginger Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Combine the red currants, bruised ginger root, bitter almonds, sweet almond, lemons, and bourbon whisky in a large container.

  2. Let the mixture sit for 10 days.

  3. Strain the liquid to remove the solids.

Sweeten and bottle

  1. Add the loaf sugar to the strained liquid and stir until dissolved.

  2. Bottle the ginger cordial.

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. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  2. Red currant + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Red currant + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Ginger + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Bourbon whisky
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavor from the ginger, almonds and fruit while preserving the cordial.
Jamaica ginger root
Provides the main spicy, aromatic flavor as its oils and compounds dissolve into the alcohol.
Red currants
Contribute tartness, color and fruity body to the cordial.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the cordial and balances the sharpness of the fruit and alcohol.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright citrus aroma that lift the flavor.

The step that matters

Strain before sweetening. Solids left in the liquid keep extracting bitterness and cloudiness over time, so the mixture should be strained fully before the sugar is added and stirred until dissolved.

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, almond, lemon, bourbon whisky, sugar):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, almond, lemon, bourbon whisky, sugar. 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.

You might also like

Lemon WheyLemon Whey33 recipesLemon WineLemon Wine31 recipesGinger PopGinger Pop22 recipesAlmond MilkAlmond Milk18 recipes