Name: Black Currant Cordial
Ingredients: 2 ounces cloves; 2 ounces stick cinnamon; 2 ounces allspice; 4 nutmeg; 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper; currants; ginger root; ½ gallon whiskey; 4 pounds granulated sugar

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 ↓

Black Currant Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Bruise the currants, ginger root, and cinnamon.
Add all spices except cayenne pepper into a thin muslin bag.
Put cayenne pepper in another bag.
Pour ½ gallon of whiskey over the bags.
Let it stand for 48 hours, stirring occasionally.
Strain the mixture and pour another ½ gallon of whiskey over the currants.
Stir thoroughly and strain into the first whiskey.
Add 4 pounds of granulated sugar.
If too strong, dilute with a little water, then bottle.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Swap the currant

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

Limefits better
Lemonfits better
Orangefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, pepper, ginger, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.