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Noyeau Cordial

A homemade cordial made with proof spirit, loaf sugar, almond extract, and optional apricot or peach juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Noyeau Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Combine 1 gallon of proof spirit, 3 pounds of loaf sugar, and 1 tablespoon of almond extract in a large container, then mix well and cover tightly.

  2. Let it stand for 48 hours.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture through thick flannel into a clean bottle.

  2. Mix in ½ pint of apricot or peach juice before bottling for added flavor.

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. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Spirit + apricottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together38 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Sugar + apricottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Spirit + almondtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Proof spirit
Alcohol base that dissolves and carries the almond flavor through the cordial.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and a smooth, syrupy body to the cordial.
Extract of almonds
Provides the main almond aroma and flavor.
Apricot or peach juice
Adds fruity sweetness and a light fruit flavor.

The step that matters

Standing for 48 hours. The sugar must fully dissolve and the alcohol needs time to draw flavor from the almond extract before straining. Stopping early leaves the cordial weak and grainy in taste.

Swap the apricot

The recipe marks apricot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spirit, sugar, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, sugar, almond. 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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