Violet Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the violet infusion
Place the violets in an earthen jar and pour boiling water over them.
Cover the jar and place it on hot cinders for 2 hours.
Squeeze the violets to extract the juice; you should have about 1 pint.
Make the syrup
In a preserving pan, combine the sugar and ½ pint of water.
Boil the mixture and skim it until clear.
Continue boiling until a thread forms when dipped in water and pulled out.
Add the violet juice to the syrup and mix well without boiling.
Keep and bottle
Pour the syrup into a jar and keep it warm on a hot hearth for 3 days.
To test, dip your fingers into the syrup; a thread should form without breaking.
Bottle the syrup and cork it tightly.
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
What each ingredient does
- Violets
- Provide the floral flavour and the colour that the juice carries into the syrup.
- Sugar
- Forms the bulk of the syrup and, when boiled, sets to the thread stage that gives body.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar syrup to the thread stage. Boiling drives off water and concentrates the sugar; stop too early and the syrup stays thin, go too far and it crystallises or turns hard. The finger thread test checks the concentration.
“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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