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Drink

Raspberry Cup

A chilled cocktail of raspberry syrup, brandy, bitters, and soda water, served with ice and fruit garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raspberry and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Raspberry Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cocktail

  1. In a large pitcher, combine the raspberry syrup, brandy, and Angostura bitters.

  2. Add the soda water and mix gently.

  3. Ice the mixture well.

Serve

  1. Serve in small glasses, decorated with clusters of red and white currants, raspberries, and lemon quarters.

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. Raspberry + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Raspberry + white curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  3. Raspberry + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

  4. White currant + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Raspberry syrup
Provides the main raspberry flavour and sweetness in the drink.
Brandy
Adds alcoholic body and a warm, fruity depth to the cocktail.
Angostura bitters
Adds aromatic spice and balances the sweetness of the syrup.
Soda water
Adds carbonation and dilutes the mixture for a lighter drink.

Swap the white currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raspberry, syrup, brandy, lemon):

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. White currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raspberry, syrup, brandy, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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