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Dessert

Yanilla Syrup

A syrup made from vanilla beans, water, gelatin, sugar, and optional vanilla extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,587 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Yanilla Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Split the vanilla beans and scrape out the centers.

  2. Combine the beans and centers with 1 gallon of water and ¼ ounce of gelatin in a pot.

  3. Bring to a boil for a few moments.

Finish the syrup

  1. Add 12½ pounds of sugar and stir until dissolved.

  2. Remove from heat, skim off the scum, and strain into a jug.

  3. For a simpler syrup, add 5 ounces of vanilla extract to each gallon.

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. Beans + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,587 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Vanilla beans
Gives the syrup its characteristic aroma and flavour from the seeds and pods.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and the body that makes the syrup thick and stable.
Gelatine
Adds a little body and a slightly fuller mouthfeel to the syrup.
Vanilla extract
Adds extra vanilla aroma in the simpler optional version of the syrup.

The step that matters

Dissolving the sugar fully. Sugar must be completely dissolved before the syrup is finished, because leftover undissolved crystals can seed further crystallisation and leave the syrup grainy or cloudy.

“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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