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Dessert

Blackberry Syrup

A sweet syrup made by cooking blackberries with sugar and water, then adding brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Blackberry Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup base

  1. Place the blackberries, sugar, and cold water in a large jar with a tight-fitting lid.

  2. Stand the jar in a saucepan of boiling water.

  3. Cook gently for about 2 hours.

  4. Strain the juice.

  5. Measure it.

Reduce and finish

  1. Put the juice into a preserving pan or enamelled stewpan.

  2. Boil gently for about 20 minutes, skimming carefully.

  3. Add a small glass of brandy to each pint of syrup.

  4. Let it cool completely.

  5. Bottle for use.

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. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberries
Provide the fruit juice that forms the body and flavour of the syrup.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the syrup and, at high concentration, helps preserve it.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that aids preservation and contributes aroma to the syrup.

The step that matters

Skimming during the gentle boil. Foam and fruit solids rise to the surface as the juice boils. Skimming them off keeps the syrup clear and reduces spoilage risk before bottling.

“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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