Porter Soda
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Dissolve six pounds of sugar in a quart of water.
Add a bottle of porter.
Let it simmer slowly.
Add the acid
Dissolve four ounces of tartaric acid in a tumblerful of water.
Stir it in just before the syrup is taken off the fire.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and body, and forms the thick syrup base.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds sharpness and, when heated with sugar, partly converts sucrose so the syrup stays smooth.
The step that matters
Stir in the tartaric acid just before taking the syrup off the fire. Acid and heat break some sucrose into invert sugar, which keeps the syrup from crystallising. Adding the acid late limits how long it acts, so the syrup does not over-invert and turn cloying or dark.
“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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