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Rum Shrub

A citrus syrup with tartaric acid, sugar, lemon and orange oils, water, rum, eggs, Seville oranges, and bitter almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Rum Shrub

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large cask (80 gallons), combine tartaric acid, pale sugar, oil of lemon, and oil of orange.

  2. Add 10 gallons of water and stir until the sugar and acid dissolve.

  3. Pour in 20 gallons of proof rum and enough water to make a total of 55 gallons.

  4. Add coloring to your preference.

  5. Fine the mixture with 12 eggs.

  6. For improved flavor, add sliced Seville oranges and bruised bitter almonds.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Orange + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together801 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Tartaric acid
Provides the sharp, sour acidity that defines a shrub.
Pale sugar
Balances the acidity and adds sweetness to the blend.
Proof rum
Supplies the alcohol base and most of the spirit's body and aroma.
Eggs
Used for fining, binding fine particles so they settle out and the liquid clears.

The step that matters

Fining with eggs. Egg whites bind suspended particles as they are stirred in and then settle, clearing the liquid. Adding them to a mixture that is not evenly blended, or skipping the settling time, leaves the drink 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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