Name: Cinnamon Cordial
Ingredients: 2 gallons rectified malt spirit; 1.5 pennyweights oil of cassia; 0.5 pennyweight oil of orange; 2 drops oil of caraway; 0.5 ounce cinnamon; 2 pounds loaf sugar; burnt sugar (for coloring); a little isinglass (for fining)

Why it works: Cassia and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 116 recipes. Both carry cinnamyl acetate, which smells sweet aromatic, cinnamon. The science ↓

Cinnamon Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Combine 2 gallons of rectified malt spirit with 1.5 pennyweights of oil of cassia, 0.5 pennyweight of oil of orange, 2 drops of oil of caraway, and 0.5 ounce of cinnamon.
Add 2 pounds of loaf sugar and color with burnt sugar.
Fine the mixture with a little isinglass.
Stir well and let it sit to develop flavors.

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.

Cassia + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together116 recipes

Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,437 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Caraway + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together188 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Orange + carawaytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together158 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Rectified malt spirit: Acts as the solvent that extracts and carries the flavoring oils and cinnamon.
Loaf sugar: Adds sweetness and body, softening the sharp spice flavors.
Oil of cassia: Provides the dominant cinnamon-like aroma and flavor.
Cinnamon: Contributes warm, woody spice aroma and flavor to the spirit.

Swap the caraway

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (malt, spirit, cassia, orange, cinnamon, sugar):

Clovefits better
Gingerfits better
Nutmegfits better
Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against malt, spirit, cassia, orange, cinnamon, sugar. 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.