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Blackberry Cordial

A sweet blackberry cordial made with water, sugar, spices, and whiskey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Blackberry Cordial

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 Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the berries

  1. Select coarse-grain, well-ripened blackberries.

  2. In a porcelain kettle, boil 3 pints of water.

  3. Add the blackberries and cook until soft.

  4. Strain out the seeds and pulp.

Make the cordial

  1. Add 3 lbs of lump sugar, 3 sticks of cinnamon, 24 cloves, and 1 tablespoon of allspice to the liquid.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes.

  3. When cold, strain out the spices and stir in 1 quart of old whiskey.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberries
Provide the main fruit flavor, color, and body of the cordial.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the cordial and helps preserve it.
Old whiskey
Adds alcohol that preserves the cordial and contributes warmth and depth of flavor.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma to the cordial.
Cloves
Adds pungent, warm spice aroma to the cordial.
Allspice
Adds aromatic warm spice notes to the cordial.

The step that matters

Strain out the seeds and pulp. Leftover seeds and pulp can make the cordial cloudy and gritty and may add bitterness, so the liquid should be strained thoroughly before the sugar and spices are added.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

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