Name: Blackberry Cordial
Ingredients: 2 cups blackberries; ⅓ cup whisky; 3 pounds sugar; 1 teaspoon powdered cloves; 1 teaspoon allspice; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon mace

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

Heat the blackberries until warm.
Squeeze out the juice into a jug or bottle.
Add the whisky and sugar to the juice.
Tie the cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and mace in a thin bag and drop it into the jug.
Seal and let it infuse before serving.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,189 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

Blackberries: Provide the main fruit juice that gives the cordial its flavour and colour.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and body, and helps preserve the cordial.
Whisky: Adds alcohol that carries aroma and helps keep the cordial stable.
Cloves: Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour as the spice bag infuses.

Swap the mace

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

Nutmegfits better
Gingerfits better
Cardamomfits better
Macethe original

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