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Drink

Gold Cordial

A spiced cordial made by steeping angelica, raisins, figs and spices in spirits and water, then distilling and sweetening it with sugar and rosewater.

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 the infusion

  1. Combine angelica root, 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.

Distil and sweeten

  1. Gently heat the mixture until the feints begin to rise, using a piece of linen fastened to the mouth of the worm.

  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

Angelica root
Contributes aromatic, bitter flavour that defines the cordial's character.
Raisins
Add natural sweetness and a rounded, fruity body to the infusion.
Sugar
Sweetens the finished cordial and gives it a syrupy, rounded texture.
Proof spirits
Extract and carry the aromatic compounds from the botanicals during digestion.
Rosewater
Adds a floral aroma that shapes the final perfume of the cordial.

The step that matters

Gently heating the mixture until the feints begin to rise. Heating too hard carries harsh, unwanted compounds into the distillate; gentle heat and a linen filter at the worm help keep the spirit clean and the aromas balanced.

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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