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Gum Syrup

A syrup made from gum arabic, sugar, whiskey, orange peel, and aromatic oils.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cassia and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 116 recipes. Both carry cinnamyl acetate, which smells sweet aromatic, cinnamon. The science ↓

Gum Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gum and sugar syrups

  1. Dissolve 20 lbs. gum arabic in 4 gallons of nearly boiling water.

  2. Melt and clarify 60 lbs. of sugar with 1 gallon of cold water.

  3. Add the gum solution to the sugar mixture and boil for 2 minutes.

Flavour and combine

  1. In a separate container, combine 5 gallons of whiskey, 4 lbs. of fresh orange peel, and the oils.

  2. Dissolve 16 lbs. of refined sugar in 5 quarts of water.

  3. Mix all ingredients together and let them digest for 5 days before using.

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. Cassia + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Gum arabic
Provides body and a thick, smooth texture to the syrup.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and bulk, giving the syrup its body and preserving quality.
Whiskey
Acts as the solvent that carries the oils and orange peel flavour.
Fresh orange peel
Contributes citrus aroma and bitter-edged flavour to the finished syrup.
Refined sugar
Adds further sweetness and mass to the syrup.

The step that matters

Add the gum solution to the sugar mixture and boil for 2 minutes. Gum arabic and sugar must be fully combined while hot so the gum dissolves evenly; uneven mixing can leave lumps or a cloudy, inconsistent syrup.

Swap the cassia

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, almond, lemon, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Cassiathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, almond, lemon, 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.

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