Why it works: Sugar and raspberry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,101 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Raspberry Shrub
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the sugar and raspberry juice in a large pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Skim off any foam that forms on the surface.
Bottle the mixture while it is still hot.
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.
-
Sugar + raspberrytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,101 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the shrub and helps preserve it by binding water and inhibiting microbial growth.
- Raspberry juice
- Provides the main fruit flavour, tartness and aroma, and forms the liquid base of the shrub.
The step that matters
Bottle the mixture while it is still hot.. Bottling hot helps seal the syrup and reduces the chance of spoilage from airborne microbes, since the sugar-rich liquid is then kept in clean, sealed containers. Hot filling also helps the liquid stay sterile during storage.
“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.
More raspberry shrub recipes
You might also like
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.