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Dessert

Violet Drops

A sweet made with violet flowers, syrup, eggs, sugar, and orris root.

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

Make the violet sugar

  1. Heat 1 pint of syrup in a sugar pan until it reduces to caramel consistency.

  2. Add the violets and stir until the mixture cools.

  3. Pound the mixture, then sift it through a silk sieve.

Make the drops

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add the violet sugar and powdered sugar until the mixture reaches a proper thickness.

  3. Incorporate a small quantity of fine powdered orris root.

  4. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a parchment-lined tray.

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
Cooked to caramel consistency, it supplies sweetness and the body that holds the drops together.
Finest scented violets
Supply the floral aroma and flavour that define the drops.
Eggs
Beaten in, they add structure and help the mixture set as it dries.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and firms the mixture to a thickness suitable for dropping.
Orris root
Helps hold the violet scent and adds a subtle floral note.

The step that matters

Bringing the mixture to proper thickness. If the mixture is too thin, the drops spread on the tray and lose their shape; if too stiff, they will not drop cleanly from the spoon. Adding the powdered sugar gradually lets the cook judge the texture before the mixture is shaped.

“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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