Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Red Raspberry Shrub
Ingredients
Directions
Macerate
Combine raspberries and vinegar in a container and let it stand for 3 to 4 days.
Make the syrup
Strain the mixture to extract the juice.
For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of sugar.
Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.
Bottle
Bottle the shrub when it is cold.
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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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 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
- Raspberries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and the color of the finished shrub.
- Vinegar
- Extracts flavor from the fruit and adds the sharp acidity that defines a shrub.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity and sweetens the shrub, and helps preserve it.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture for 20 minutes. Boiling dissolves the sugar fully into the juice and vinegar, forming a uniform syrup. Stopping early can leave the sugar grainy or the shrub less stable.
“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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