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Noyeau Cordial

A spirit-based cordial flavored with almonds and optional apricot or peach juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Noyeau Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cordial

  1. Combine 1 gallon of proof spirit with 3 pounds of loaf sugar and 1 tablespoon of extract of almonds in a large container.

  2. Mix well and cover tightly.

  3. Let it stand for 48 hours.

  4. Strain the mixture through thick flannel into bottles.

Finish and bottle

  1. For improved flavor, add ½ pint of apricot or peach juice before bottling.

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. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Spirit + apricottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together38 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + apricottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Spirit + almondtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Proof spirit
Acts as the alcoholic base that dissolves the almond flavor and preserves the cordial.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and body, balancing the strong spirit and almond extract.
Extract of almonds
Provides the characteristic almond aroma and flavor of the cordial.

Swap the apricot

The recipe marks apricot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spirit, sugar, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, sugar, almond. 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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