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Cordial, Hop

A herbal cordial made by macerating hops, Stillingia, gentian, dandelion, chamomile, and orange peel in water, then mixing with simple syrup and rectified spirit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Dandelion and orange work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 31 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cordial, Hop

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Macerate the hops, Stillingia, gentian, dandelion, chamomile, and orange peel in the distilled water for seven days.

  2. Strain the mixture, applying pressure to the residue.

  3. Mix the strained liquid with the simple syrup and rectified spirit.

  4. Filter the mixture if necessary.

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. Dandelion + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together31 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Orange + spirittop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Chamomile + spirittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

  4. Syrup + spirittop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Chamomile + orangetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Hops
Adds bitter flavour and aroma to the cordial.
Gentian
Contributes a strong bitter taste that balances the sweetness of the syrup.
Simple syrup
Adds sweetness and body, softening the bitter herbal notes.
Rectified spirit
Acts as a solvent and preservative, extracting and holding the aromatic compounds.

The step that matters

Macerate the botanicals in the distilled water for seven days. Long steeping lets water draw flavour and aroma compounds out of the herbs and peel slowly. Too short a steep leaves the infusion weak, and the full extraction is what gives the cordial its character.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (hops, dandelion, chamomile, syrup, spirit):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against hops, dandelion, chamomile, syrup, 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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