Name: Raspberry Shrub
Ingredients: 3 quarts raspberries; 1 quart sharp vinegar; 1 pint juice from raspberries; 1 pound sugar

Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Raspberry Shrub

Ingredients

3 quarts raspberries
1 quart sharp vinegar
1 pint juice from raspberries
1 pound sugar

Directions

Macerate and extract juice

Combine 3 quarts of raspberries with 1 quart of sharp vinegar.
Let the mixture stand for one day.
Squeeze the mixture through a thin cloth to extract the juice.

Make the syrup

In a pot, combine 1 pint of the raspberry juice with 1 pound of sugar.
Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.

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.

Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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 flavor, color and juice for the shrub.
Sharp vinegar: Adds acidity that gives the shrub its tangy, sharp character.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and gives the syrup body.

“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.