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Cinnamon Cordial

A spirit-based cordial flavored with cassia, lemon, orange, cardamom, and optional dried peels and burnt sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and cardamom match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 405 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Cinnamon Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the flavouring

  1. If using essential oil, mix 1 teaspoon with 2-3 gallons of spirit.

  2. Add 2-3 drops each of lemon and orange essence, and 1 tablespoon of cardamom essence per gallon.

  3. Optionally, add 1 teaspoon of cardamom seeds and 1 oz. each of dried orange and lemon peel.

Sweeten and colour

  1. Dissolve 1½ lb. of sugar in the mixture.

  2. To darken the cordial, add burnt sugar as desired.

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. Lemon + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + cardamomtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cassia + cardamomtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together58 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Orange + spirittop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Essential oil of cassia
Supplies the main cinnamon aroma that defines the cordial.
Sugar
Sweetens the spirit and balances its strong, bitter edge.
Spirit
Extracts and carries the aromatic oils and flavours through the cordial.
Cardamom essence
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that complements the cassia.
Burnt sugar
Darkens the colour of the cordial; adds no significant flavour at small amounts.

The step that matters

Dissolve the sugar fully. Sugar dissolves best gradually in a spirit-based liquid; undissolved crystals leave grittiness and an uneven sweetness. Stirring thoroughly ensures the sweetness is evenly distributed throughout the cordial.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cassia, orange, cardamom, sugar, spirit):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cassia, orange, cardamom, sugar, spirit. 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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