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Blackberry Cordial

A sweet blackberry cordial made with blackberry juice, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, and brandy.

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

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Blackberry Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine the blackberry juice, cinnamon, and cloves.

  2. Boil until the strength is extracted, skimming while boiling.

  3. Strain the mixture and add the white sugar.

  4. Boil for a few minutes, then let it cool.

  5. Once cool, add the brandy and bottle the 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.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Blackberry + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Blackberry juice
Provides the main fruit flavour and liquid base of the cordial.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the blackberry juice.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the cordial and carries its aroma.
Cinnamon
Adds warm spice aroma that complements the blackberry flavour.
Cloves
Adds pungent spice aroma that deepens the cordial's flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the brandy after cooling. Alcohol is volatile and evaporates when hot, so adding the brandy only once the mixture has cooled keeps its strength and aroma in the finished cordial.

Swap the blackberry

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, sugar, 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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