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Raspberry Shrub

A preserved raspberry vinegar made by steeping berries in cider vinegar, sweetening, cooking, and diluting before serving.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Raspberry Shrub

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Raspberry Shrub

Ingredients

Directions

Make the shrub

  1. Cover the raspberries with cider vinegar and let them stand for about 2 days.

  2. Strain the mixture through a jelly bag.

  3. Add 1 cup of sugar for every cup of juice.

  4. Cook the mixture in a granite iron kettle for 30 minutes, then let it cool.

Bottle and serve

  1. Bottle and cork it, then store in a dark, cool place.

  2. Mix 1 cup of the shrub with ½ gallon of ice water before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  3. Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 color for the shrub.
Cider vinegar
Extracts fruit flavor and adds the tart acidity that defines a shrub.
White sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness and adds sweetness to the syrup.

The step that matters

Cooking the mixture for 30 minutes. Cooking the strained juice with sugar dissolves it fully and thickens the syrup slightly, helping the shrub stay stable and blend evenly when mixed with ice water.

“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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