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 Drops
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the sugar
Heat sugar until it reaches 400°F (200°C).
Just before it reaches the crack stage, add enough prepared cochineal to color the sugar like raspberries.
Once at the full degree, pour the sugar onto a plate.
Flavor and shape
Mix in 1 teaspoon of powdered tartaric acid and 2 teaspoons of concentrated essence of raspberry.
Work the mixture as explained for acid drops.
Pass the mixture through a raspberry machine.
Add paste color after pouring the sugar, along with the acid and essence.
Knead the mixture thoroughly with your hands.
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.
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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
- Forms the glassy candy base and provides sweetness when heated to the hard-crack range.
- Powdered tartaric acid
- Adds sharp acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
- Concentrated essence of raspberry
- Supplies the concentrated raspberry aroma and flavor that defines the drops.
The step that matters
Adding the acid and essence. Acid added to hot sugar can cause it to invert and turn sticky or cloudy, so the mixture must be worked quickly and evenly once the sugar has cooled slightly.
“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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