Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Syrup


snowangel

Recommended Posts

I have boatloads (slight exageration, gallons would be more accurate) of raspberries. It has been a prolific year.

I have made pies. Many of them. Using my great-grandmother's recipe, which Cook's Illustrated seems to have pilfered.

I still have berries. Lots of them.

Any hints on making syrup? We eat a lot of pancakes and waffles in this house, and I'm thinking this would be a good use for the raspberries.

I'm seeking something not too sweet, not watery-runny, but not too thick. Syrup.

Any advice from the experts?

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not an expert ... well you get the idea... But, some of my best syrups have been failed jam. :laugh:

So you just go for a jam and don't quite make it.

Seriously, I have in the past added just a little bit of pectin to get a syrup consistency if the fruit would normally require a bit of pectin. I haven't had the luxury of raspberries (dammit) so I don't know about them.

Edited by fifi (log)

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, this isn't going to be helpful for your question either.

How about soaking a bunch of those raspberries in vodka? Raspberry cordial for Christmastime? And how about making jam? Or jelly. Jelly's cool...

Wait, wait. I'll give it a shot. Weigh the berries, then boil them with just a little bit of water. Once they boil simmer them for about ten minutes to break them up. Strain them through cheesecloth and return the juice to the pot. Add one cup of sugar per pound of raspberries, simmer for ten minutes, and check the consistency on a cold plate. If it isn't thick enough then slowly reduce it until it's correct. Refrigerate, and I don't think you'll have to seal it in jars. Anyone know for sure?

If we aren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You will have to seal the jars. The concentration of sugar will not be enough to stop spoilage.

Commercial offerings are often thickened with a starch, like cornflour or tapioca.

You will get a better gell, and balance the flavours with some acid, like lemon juice.

You could make a rumtopf: put the berries in a large stone crock or big jar with sugar and enough rum to cover. As you get more fruit add it to the jar - cherries, currants, grapes etc. Make sure its is always covered with the rum. Stir occaisionally. Spoon over icecream. Improves with time if allowed to do so.

You can make rote grutze recipe, but can be simplified: Red and black fruits, lemon, cinnamon, thickened with corn starch

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have boatloads (slight exageration, gallons would be more accurate) of raspberries.  It has been a prolific year.

I am PEA GREEN! Do you know how many times I've not copied down a recipe because there isn't a prayer that I could get that many raspberries without first robbing a bank????

By the way, you are not alone. The novelist Jim Harrison wrote about a surfeit of raspberries in the National Geographic Traveler issue that focused on food, I think it was in May 2003 -- "Taste of Travel." If I remember correctly, he lives in Montana. Hard to believe, but the neighbors shoo him away when he shows up with gifts of raspberries -- like other people's zucchini or tomato bounties....

Anyhoo...

You can get rid of 6 cups right away by making Claudia Fleming's "Lemon-Thyme-Macerated Raspberry Compote" -- from her book The Last Course (2001) -- excerpted recipe published in the Washington Post on August 28, 2003. Basically it consists of pureeing a small portion of the berries with lemon-thyme leaves and tossing the remainder of the berries with this puree. But I guess this is only an eat-right-away recipe, and you're looking for long-term storage.

My favorite is raspberry liqueurs or cordials, but I've always kept them in the refrigerator, not having enough berries to worry about spoilage.... Any of the good preserving / canning books should have a recipe and instructions for "canning" a berry syrup. Excellent idea...then in the middle of winter you've got that burst of summer!

Enjoy for the rest of us!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have boatloads (slight exageration, gallons would be more accurate) of raspberries.  It has been a prolific year.

I am PEA GREEN! Do you know how many times I've not copied down a recipe because there isn't a prayer that I could get that many raspberries without first robbing a bank????

Just picked 3+ more gallons. I think I'm up to 12 gallons, and we live in the city on a not-too-large lot; I should add that I'm also getting them from the house next door (nasty divorce; I have permission). I have never seen a harvest like this.

It's a syrupy afternoon!

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Syrup made. It came close to filling one 16 quart stock pot AND one 8 quart stock pot. I went by advice from an Elizabeth Davidson book, which agreed with the info in a 1952 Lutheran church cookbook from a small town in Nebraska. It have all been "put up" and I have many, many jars of glistening syrup.

We are taking one jar to the cabin; we leave tomorrow.

Guess what we'll be giving for Christmas this year?

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...