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Raspberry Cordial

A sweet raspberry cordial made by steeping berries in vinegar, sweetening with sugar, boiling, and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Raspberry Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Steep the raspberries

  1. Fill a jar nearly full of raspberries.

  2. Cover them with white wine vinegar and let stand for 10 days.

  3. Strain the mixture.

Make the syrup

  1. Add 1½ pounds of sugar for each pint of liquid.

  2. Boil gently for a few minutes.

  3. Cool and bottle for use.

Serve

  1. Mix with water for a delightful summer drink.

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. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Raspberries
Provide the main fruit flavor and color that the vinegar extracts over time.
White wine vinegar
Extracts and preserves the raspberry flavor, giving the cordial its tartness.
Sugar
Sweetens the liquid and balances the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Boil gently for a few minutes. Boiling the sugar and strained liquid dissolves the sugar fully and thickens the syrup slightly. Boiling too hard can scorch the sugar and dull the fresh raspberry aroma.

“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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