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Dandelion Cordial

A herbal cordial made from dandelion blossoms, citrus, spices, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Dandelion Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crush the oranges and lemons, then cover with brown sugar.

  2. Add the dandelion blossoms, cloves, and cinnamon sticks to a stone jar.

Ferment

  1. Pour the boiling water over the mixture and let it stand in a warm place for 6 days, stirring frequently.

  2. Strain the mixture and return it to the jar.

  3. Add the compressed yeast and cover with cheesecloth.

Bottle

  1. Once clarified, bottle the cordial.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Dandelion + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together57 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Dandelion blossoms
Provide the main floral flavour and colour of the cordial.
Brown sugar
Supplies sweetness and feeds the yeast during fermentation.
Oranges
Add acidity and citrus aroma to balance the sweetness.
Lemons
Add sharp acidity that brightens the flavour and helps balance sugar.
Compressed yeast
Ferments the sugars, driving the fermentation that gives the cordial its character.
Cinnamon sticks
Contribute warm aroma and spiced flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring during the warm standing period. Frequent stirring keeps the fruit and blossoms submerged and the sugars evenly distributed, so the mixture ferments evenly and exposed pieces are less likely to spoil.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (dandelion, sugar, orange, lemon, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against dandelion, sugar, orange, lemon, cinnamon. 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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