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Gold Cordial

A spiced cordial made with angelica root, 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

Prepare

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

  2. Add proof spirits and water, then let the mixture digest for two days.

Distil and sweeten

  1. Gently heat the mixture until the fizzes begin to rise, using a piece of linen to draw off the liquid.

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

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

Proof spirits
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the botanicals and carries the aroma.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the sharp edge of the spirit.
Coriander seeds
Contribute citrusy, aromatic flavour to the spirit.
Caraway seeds
Contribute a distinctive warm, earthy aroma.
Rosewater
Adds floral aroma to the finished liquor.

The step that matters

Gently heat the mixture until the fizzes begin to rise. Heating too hard can scorch the mixture and carry bitter, burnt flavours into the distillate. Gentle heat lets the alcohol vaporise slowly so the aromatic compounds are captured cleanly.

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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