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Dessert

Violet Drops

A sweet confection made from violet flowers, syrup, eggs, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Violet Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the violets

  1. Remove the stalks from the violets.

  2. In a saucepan, heat 1 pint of syrup until it reduces to caramel consistency.

Make the mixture

  1. Add the violets and stir until cool.

  2. Pound the mixture.

  3. Sift the mixture through a silk sieve.

  4. Beat 3 eggs.

  5. Mix in the violet sugar and powdered sugar until thick.

  6. Add a small quantity of fine powdered orris root.

Set the drops

  1. Drop the mixture onto a surface to set.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Syrup + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,995 recipes

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Syrup
Reduced to caramel consistency, it forms the sweet base that the mixture is built on.
Eggs
Beaten eggs add body and help bind the mixture into a thick, workable paste.
Powdered sugar
Stiffens the mixture so it holds its shape when dropped and sets.

The step that matters

Reducing the syrup to caramel consistency. Cooking the syrup to the right concentration determines whether the drops set firm. Too little cooking leaves them soft and sticky, while overcooking can make them brittle or colour them.

“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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