Syrup of Pinks
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the flowers
Remove all green parts from the pinks.
Place the flowers in a mortar and pound them with boiling water.
Strain the mixture through a cloth.
Make the syrup
Clarify the sugar.
Boil the sugar to a ball.
Add the sugar to the decoction and boil it again until it reaches a pearl stage.
Skim and strain the syrup through a cloth.
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
What each ingredient does
- Pinks
- Provide the flavour and pink colour that define the syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and, when boiled, thickens it to a pearl stage.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar to a pearl stage. Sugar syrup thickens as water evaporates and its concentration rises. Stopping too early leaves a thin syrup that may spoil sooner, while overcooking makes it stiff and prone to crystallising as it cools.
“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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