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Blackberry Cordial

A sweet blackberry cordial flavored with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Blackberry Cordial

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 Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine blackberry juice and sugar in a large pot.

  2. Boil and skim off any foam.

  3. Add ground cloves, ground cinnamon, and grated nutmegs.

Reduce

  1. Boil down until the mixture is quite sticky.

  2. Cool the mixture and let it settle.

Finish

  1. Once cold, strain off the liquid and add brandy.

  2. Bottle the cordial.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Blackberry + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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 flavor and deep color of the cordial.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as the mixture boils down, thickens it into a sticky syrup.
Ground cloves
Adds warm, pungent aroma to the cordial.
Ground cinnamon
Adds sweet, warm aroma that rounds out the fruit flavor.
Grated nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice that deepens the flavor.
Brandy
Adds alcohol and aroma, and helps keep the finished cordial stable.

The step that matters

Boil down until quite sticky. Boiling concentrates the sugar and juice, so the cordial thickens and becomes more stable. Stopping too early leaves it thin and more prone to spoiling, while boiling too long can scorch the sugar.

Swap the blackberry

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

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

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