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Blackberry Cordial

A sweet blackberry cordial made with blackberry juice, sugar, and spices.

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. Pulverize the spices and tie them in a clean cloth.

Make the cordial

  1. Combine blackberry juice, sugar, and the spice bag in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes, skimming off any foam.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the cordial while hot and seal the bottles.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 liquid base of the cordial.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and body, and helps preserve the cordial.
Cloves
Contribute warm, pungent aroma to the spiced flavor.
Cinnamon
Adds sweet, warm aroma that rounds out the spice blend.
Allspice
Adds warm, complex aroma blending clove and cinnamon notes.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the cordial.

The step that matters

Skimming off the foam while boiling. Foam is made of proteins and impurities that rise to the surface as the mixture heats. Removing it keeps the cordial clear and prevents off flavors from remaining in the finished liquid.

Swap the blackberry

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

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

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