Name: Raspberry Shrub
Ingredients: 2 cups raspberries; 2 cups good cider vinegar; 2 cups sugar; cold water; pounded rice

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

Macerate

Place raspberries in a stone jar and cover with cider vinegar.
Let stand overnight.

Make the shrub

The next morning, strain the mixture.
For every pint of juice, add a pint of sugar.
Boil the mixture for ten minutes.
Bottle while hot.

Serve

To serve, mix ½ glass of shrub with ½ glass of pounded rice and cold water.

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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + ricetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,604 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sugar + ricetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,744 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cider + ricetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together141 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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 flavour and colour of the shrub.
Cider vinegar: Extracts the fruit and gives the shrub its sharp, tangy acidity.
Sugar: Sweetens the juice and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

“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.