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Blackberry Brandy

A spiced blackberry brandy made by simmering blackberry juice, sugar, and spices, then adding brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Blackberry Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix all ingredients and let them stand for a few hours, drawing the juice as for jelly.

Cook

  1. Transfer the mixture to a clean pan and bring to a slow boil to extract the spices.

  2. Simmer for 20 minutes, skimming often.

Finish

  1. When cold, add the brandy, using 1 quart if you plan to keep it.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberry juice
Provides the main fruit flavour and liquid base for the drink.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness and body, and helps preserve the finished drink.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that preserves the drink and carries the spice aromas.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma to the spiced flavour.
Cloves
Contributes strong, pungent aroma to the spiced flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering with skimming. A slow boil extracts spice flavour without making the liquid cloudy or bitter. Skimming removes foam and loose particles that would otherwise cloud the drink and dull its clarity.

Swap the blackberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Blackberrythe original

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