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Elderberry Syrup

A syrup made from elderberries, molasses, and French brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and brandy work together. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 721 recipes. The science ↓

Elderberry Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and strain the elderberries.

Make the syrup

  1. In a pot, combine the elderberry juice and molasses.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

Finish and bottle

  1. Once cooled, add 1 pint of French brandy for each quart of syrup.

  2. Bottle and cork tightly.

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. Molasses + brandytop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together721 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Elderberries
Provide the main fruity flavor and deep color of the syrup.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a thick, rich body as it reduces.
French brandy
Adds alcohol, which helps preserve the syrup and gives it aroma.

The step that matters

Add the brandy only after the syrup has cooled. Alcohol evaporates quickly when hot, so adding brandy to boiling syrup would lose much of its aroma and preservative effect. Waiting until it cools keeps more of the brandy in the finished syrup.

“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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