Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Syrup of Roses
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the infusion
Gather 1 pound of damask rose leaves in high season.
Place the leaves in an earthen vessel and add 1 quart of boiling spring water. Cover the vessel and let it steep for 6 hours.
Strain the liquid through a piece of cloth.
Make the syrup
To 1 pint of the juice, add 1.5 pounds of loaf sugar. Boil over a brisk fire until it reaches a good syrup consistency, skimming as needed.
Preserve
Preserve the syrup in bottles with tight corks.
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 + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rose + sugartop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,584 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Rose + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,840 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Damask rose leaves
- Provide the rose aroma and flavour that the infused liquid carries into the syrup.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the liquid and, once boiled, thickens it into a syrup that keeps well.
- Spring water
- Acts as the infusing liquid that draws flavour out of the rose leaves.
The step that matters
Boil to a good syrup consistency. Sugar must be concentrated by boiling enough to thicken the liquid and help it keep. Boiling too briefly leaves a thin syrup that may spoil, while boiling too long makes it stiff as it cools.
“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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