Sirop De Capillaire
Ingredients
Directions
Make the infusion
Briefly immerse the maidenhair leaves in boiling water, then transfer to tepid water and let infuse for at least 12 hours over hot embers.
Strain the infusion through a sieve.
Make and finish the syrup
In a saucepan, combine the sugar and water, and boil until it reaches the consistency of syrup.
Add the maidenhair infusion to the syrup without boiling, and mix well.
Remove from heat and pour into a covered earthen pan, placing it over hot embers for three days, maintaining a steady, gentle heat.
When the syrup can form a strong thread between your fingers, transfer it to bottles and let cool before corking.
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
What each ingredient does
- Maidenhair leaves
- Provide the delicate fern flavour and aroma that the infusion carries into the syrup.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and body, and thickens into the syrup as water evaporates.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar and carries the infusion, then cooks off to concentrate the syrup.
The step that matters
Adding the infusion without boiling. Boiling the maidenhair infusion can drive off its volatile aromatic compounds and darken or change its flavour, so it is added off the boil and mixed in gently.
“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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