Skip to main content

Billy's Favorite Gingerbread Spiced Coffee Syrup

"This is a delightful spicy syrup that you can use to spice up coffee, tea, apple cider, you name it, it's all good! Add a tablespoon to your favorite beverage, or use it in whipped cream, or brush it on cakes. Drizzle it on yogurt, oatmeal, or pancakes - the possibilities are endless!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 11,917 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

1 cup
Prep2 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Combine the water, sugar, honey, sliced ginger, cinnamon stick pieces, whole cloves, whole allspice berries and whole peppercorns in a small saucepan.

  2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes, until the liquid thickens slightly and is reduced by about a third.

  4. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the ground nutmeg, and let the syrup steep for 10 minutes.

  5. Strain the syrup through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean jar, discarding the spices and ginger.

  6. Cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate. Use within about two weeks.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,027 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,711 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, honey, ginger, cinnamon, clove, allspice):

  1. Cardamomabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, honey, ginger, cinnamon, clove, allspice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).