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Blackberry Cordial

A sweet alcoholic beverage made by boiling blackberries with spices, sugar, and brandy.

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 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. Combine the mashed blackberries, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture slowly until fully cooked.

  3. Strain the mixture through a flannel cloth.

  4. For each pint of juice, add 1 pound of loaf sugar and boil again.

  5. While the mixture is cooling, stir in ½ gallon of 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.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Blackberries
Provide the main fruit juice, flavor, and color of the cordial.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the juice, balancing the spices and brandy.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that preserves the cordial and carries the spice aromas.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavor to the juice.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture slowly until fully cooked. Slow boiling extracts flavor from the fruit and spices without scorching the sugar-rich juice. Adding brandy only after cooling keeps its alcohol from evaporating away during boiling.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Cardamomfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

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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