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Syrup of Raspberry

A sweet syrup made from raspberries, vinegar, sugar, egg white, and soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Syrup of Raspberry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Mash the raspberries immediately after gathering.

  2. Place them in a stone jar with ½ cup of white wine vinegar for each pound of raspberries.

  3. Let the mixture stand in a cold cellar for two days.

  4. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve without forcing the pulp.

Make the syrup

  1. Add 1¾ pounds of sugar for every pint of liquid and stir until dissolved.

  2. Clarify the mixture with the egg white.

  3. Heat gently without boiling.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil over a brisk fire.

  5. Skim as it boils.

  6. Boil for 10 minutes.

  7. Stir until completely cool.

Finish

  1. Mix 2 tablespoons of syrup in half a tumbler of water.

  2. Add enough carbonate of soda to cover a shilling.

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. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

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

  5. White wine + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Raspberries
Provide the main flavour and the fruit juice that becomes the syrup.
White wine vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the raspberry flavour and helps extract its juice.
Sugar
Sweetens and thickens the strained juice into a syrup with body.
Egg white
Binds fine particles as it cooks so they can be skimmed off, clarifying the syrup.

The step that matters

Skim as it boils. Egg white clarifies the syrup only when it cooks with the liquid and rises, carrying impurities to the surface. Skimming then removes them, leaving a clear syrup instead of a cloudy one.

“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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