Why it works: Raspberry and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,101 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Raspberry Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Select and pick over the raspberries.
Mash the raspberries in a pan and place in a warm area until fermentation starts, about 3 days.
Filter the juice through a flannel bag or blotting paper.
Make the syrup
Add the powdered sugar to the juice and heat gently, skimming carefully without boiling.
Alternatively, mix in a glass or earthenware jar and place in a pan of water on the fire to prevent burning.
Once dissolved to the 'Little Pearl' stage, strain through a cloth.
Bottle and seal
Bottle when cold, cover with tissue paper dipped in brandy, and seal with a bladder.
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.
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Raspberry + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,101 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Raspberry juice
- Provides the main flavour and liquid base of the syrup.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, once dissolved and heated, thickens it into a syrup.
The step that matters
Heating without boiling. Sugar must dissolve gently over low heat. Boiling too hard can scorch the sugar and darken the syrup, and it can make skimming and reaching the 'Little Pearl' stage harder to judge.
“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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