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Dessert

Violet Drops

A sweet confection made from syrup, violets, 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 saucepan until it reduces to a caramel consistency.

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

  3. Pound the mixture and sift it through a silk sieve.

Finish and drop

  1. Beat the 3 eggs and mix in the violet sugar and powdered sugar until it reaches a proper thickness.

  2. Add a small quantity of fine powdered orris root.

  3. 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
Reduced to a caramel consistency, it forms the sweet, glossy base of the drops.
Eggs
Beaten in to bind the mixture and give it body to hold its shape.
Violets
Stirred into the hot syrup to infuse it with their fresh, floral scent.
Powdered sugar
Mixed in to adjust sweetness and bring the mixture to a thick, workable consistency.

The step that matters

Reducing the syrup to caramel consistency. Cooking the syrup to the right concentration sets how firm the finished drops become. Too little reduction leaves them soft and sticky, while over-reduction makes the mixture hard to work with and may scorch it.

“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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