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Drink

Sassafras Shrub

A sweetened vinegar made from sassafras root, molasses, spices, and tartaric acid, served as a sparkling drink.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sassafras Shrub

Ingredients

Directions

Make the shrub

  1. Boil the sassafras root in 2 gallons of water.

  2. Add the molasses, lemon rind, cloves, and cinnamon.

  3. Cover with cheesecloth and let stand in a cool place for 5 days.

  4. Strain the mixture and add the tartaric acid.

  5. Bottle the shrub.

Serve

  1. To serve, place ½ teaspoon of carbonate of soda in a glass of water with chipped ice.

  2. Stir, then pour in ½ glass of shrub and drink while effervescing.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 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

Sassafras root
Provides the main root flavor that defines the shrub.
New orleans molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep, dark flavor that balances the acid.
Tartaric acid
Adds sharp acidity and reacts with carbonate of soda to create fizz.
Carbonate of soda
Reacts with the tartaric acid to release carbon dioxide, producing effervescence.
Stick cinnamon
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes.
Cloves
Adds pungent, aromatic spice notes.

The step that matters

Adding the carbonate of soda and drinking right away. Carbonate of soda reacts with the tartaric acid in the shrub to release carbon dioxide, which makes it fizz. The bubbles fade as the gas escapes, so the shrub should be poured and drunk while still effervescing.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, clove, cinnamon):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, clove, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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