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Blackberry Cordial

A sweet alcoholic infusion made from blackberries, whisky, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Blackberry Cordial

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 ↓

Blackberry Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Macerate the fruit

  1. Cover the blackberries with whisky and let them stand overnight.

Sweeten and flavour

  1. Strain the mixture and add 4 pounds of sugar to 1 gallon of juice.

  2. Season with cloves, allspice, and cinnamon tied in a thin cloth and dropped in.

Rest

  1. Set aside for several weeks.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Whisky + clovetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Sugar and cinnamon 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 flavour and deep colour of the cordial.
Whisky
Extracts flavour from the fruit and helps preserve the cordial.
Sugar
Sweetens the cordial and helps balance the fruit's tartness.
Juice
Forms the base liquid that carries the fruit and spice flavours.

The step that matters

Setting the cordial aside for several weeks. Resting lets the spices, fruit and sugar blend and mellow over time. Opening it too early can leave the flavours sharp and unbalanced.

Swap the allspice

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against whisky, sugar, clove, 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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