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Blackberry and Wine Cordial

A sweet cordial made from mashed blackberries, spices, sugar, and cognac brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Blackberry and Wine Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Make the juice

  1. Combine mashed blackberries, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves in a large pot and mix well.

  2. Boil the mixture slowly until properly done.

  3. Strain or squeeze the juice through homespun or flannel.

Sweeten and finish

  1. For each pint of juice, add 1 pound of loaf sugar and boil again for some time.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool, then add ½ gallon of cognac brandy.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Clove + cognac brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Blackberries
Provide the main fruit flavor, color, and body of the cordial.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the juice and helps preserve it when boiled.
Cognac brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the cordial and carries its spice aroma.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma to the cordial.
Cloves
Adds strong, warm spice aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Let the juice cool before adding the brandy. Alcohol evaporates readily when hot, so adding cognac to boiling liquid wastes some of its strength and aroma. Cooling first keeps the brandy's character in the finished cordial.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

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