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Raspberry Shrub, of Early Days

A preserved raspberry vinegar drink made by macerating berries, straining, sweetening, boiling, and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Raspberry Shrub, of Early Days

Ingredients

Directions

Macerate

  1. Combine raspberries and vinegar in a large container and let sit for 24 hours.

  2. Strain the mixture to remove solids.

Cook and bottle

  1. Add 1 pound of sugar for each pint of liquid.

  2. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes, skimming off any foam.

  3. Allow to cool, then bottle the shrub.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raspberries
Provide the main fruit flavor and red color of the shrub.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the shrub its sharp, tangy character and helps preserve it.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and helps preserve the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 30 minutes, skimming off any foam. Boiling dissolves the sugar fully into the liquid, and skimming removes foam and solids so the finished shrub stays clear and tastes clean.

“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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