Name: Blackberry Cordial
Ingredients: 2 quarts blackberry juice; 1 pound granulated sugar; ½ ounce grated nutmeg; ½ ounce ground cinnamon; ¼ ounce ground allspice; 1 pint brandy

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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

Extract the juice

Place the blackberries in a stone jar and keep them in boiling water until the juice is extracted.

Simmer, strain and bottle

Add the sugar and tie the spices in a muslin bag.
Boil the mixture for one hour.
Strain through a flannel bag, add the brandy, and cork tightly.

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.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together362 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Blackberry + allspicetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together143 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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 flavour and deep colour of the cordial.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the blackberry juice.
Brandy: Adds alcohol that helps preserve the cordial and contributes warm aroma.
Ground cinnamon: Adds warm, sweet aroma to the cordial.
Grated nutmeg: Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the cordial.
Ground allspice: Adds a peppery, clove-like aroma to the cordial.

Swap the blackberry

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

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Blackberrythe original

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