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Blackberry Syrup

A sweet syrup made from blackberry juice, sugar, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Blackberry Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine blackberry juice, loaf sugar, powdered cinnamon, mace, and cloves in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes.

  3. Strain the syrup through fine muslin.

Finish and bottle

  1. Add the brandy and bottle the syrup.

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. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Blackberry + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Blackberry + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberry juice
Forms the liquid base and supplies the main berry flavour and colour.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and body, and thickens the syrup as it reduces.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm note, and its alcohol helps the syrup keep.
Powdered cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma to the syrup.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm spice aroma that complements the berries.
Cloves
Adds a strong, warm spice aroma in small amounts.

The step that matters

Add the brandy and bottle the syrup.. Alcohol evaporates and its aroma fades when heated, so adding the brandy after boiling keeps its flavour in the finished syrup.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against blackberry, sugar, cinnamon, clove, 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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