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 and boil it to a ball stage.
Add the sugar to the decoction and boil it until it reaches a pearl stage.
Skim the syrup.
Strain the syrup through a cloth if not pounding the flowers.
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
- Supply the flower flavour and aroma that give the syrup its character.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and body, and thickens the syrup as water evaporates during boiling.
The step that matters
Boiling to the pearl stage. The stage shows how much water has evaporated, which sets the syrup's concentration and thickness. Stopping too early leaves it thin and more likely to spoil; boiling too long makes it stiff and overly sweet in texture.
“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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