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Gold Cordial

A spiced cordial made with angelica, raisins, coriander, caraway, cinnamon, cloves, figs, liquorice root, sugar, rosewater, and spirits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Gold Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Make the distillate

  1. Combine angelica roots, raisins, coriander seeds, caraway seeds, cinnamon, cloves, figs, liquorice root, proof spirits, and water in a large container.

  2. Let the mixture digest for two days.

  3. Heat gently and draw off the liquid until the faint begin to rise.

  4. Hang a piece of linen at the mouth of the worm to catch the distillate.

Sweeten and finish

  1. Dissolve sugar in rosewater and add it to the distilled liquor.

  2. Note: Gold leaf was traditionally added but is now generally omitted.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Angelica + carawaytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  5. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the finished liquor.
Proof spirits
Extracts flavour from the botanicals and acts as the solvent for the distillation.
Liquorice root
Contributes natural sweetness and a distinctive aromatic flavour.
Rosewater
Adds a floral aroma that carries into the finished cordial.

The step that matters

Drawing off the liquid gently. Heating too fast can scorch the mixture or carry harsh, bitter compounds into the distillate. Gentle heat lets the volatile aromatics come over cleanly, and stopping at the faint stage keeps the heavier, less pleasant fractions out of the final liquor.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (angelica, coriander, caraway, cinnamon, clove, fig, spirit):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against angelica, coriander, caraway, cinnamon, clove, fig, 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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