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Grape Cordial

A homemade grape cordial made by boiling grape juice with cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Grape Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine the grape juice, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the brandy.

  4. Seal the mixture in a bottle.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 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. Grape + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Grape + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Grape juice
Provides the main liquid and natural sweetness that forms the body of the cordial.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that acts as a preservative and contributes warmth and depth of flavour.
Cloves
Contribute a strong, warm aromatic flavour to the cordial.
Cinnamon
Adds a sweet, warm aroma and flavour that complements the grape juice.
Allspice
Contributes a blended peppery and warm aroma that rounds out the spice profile.

The step that matters

Stir in the brandy off the heat. Alcohol is volatile and its aroma fades when boiled, so adding brandy after removing the pot from heat keeps its flavour and strength in the finished cordial.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, cinnamon, allspice, 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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