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Raspberry Vinegar
4 quarts raspberries. 6 cups sugar. 2 cups cider or white wine vinegar Put half the berries in a large china bowl, pour the vinegar over the berries, cover the bowl, and set it aside in a cool place until the next day. Strain off the liquid. Put the rest of the berries into a clean bowl and pour the liquid over them; cover and let stand until the next day. Strain off the liquid and heat to the boiling point; add the sugar and let boil twenty minutes. Store in cans or in bottles that can be corked tight. This is used as a beverage in hot weather, two or three spoonfuls being added to a glass of water.
A classic drinking vinegar, or shrub, built by steeping two successive batches of berries in the same vinegar to double its fruit character. The printed ingredient line is incomplete, so a little judgement is needed before starting.
- Missing quantitiesOnly the 2 cups of vinegar survive in the ingredient list; the weight of raspberries and the amount of sugar are not given. Common practice in books of this period runs to roughly a quart of berries per steeping and a pound of sugar (about 2 cups) per pint of strained liquid, but that is an inference, not what the original says.
- Use a non-reactive bowlThe "china bowl" is a specification, not a flourish. Vinegar will pit and discolour aluminum, cast iron and unlined copper, and pick up a metallic taste. Glass, glazed ceramic or stainless steel only, for both steepings.
- Vinegar strengthCider vinegar sold today is usually about 5 percent acetic acid and white wine vinegar often 6 to 7 percent; period vinegars varied, so the exact strength behind this recipe is unknown. Avoid low-acid or diluted "drinking" vinegars, since the acidity helps preserve the finished syrup.
- Crush the fruitThe original says only to pour the vinegar over the berries, but pressing them lightly against the side of the bowl first will help draw out juice and colour. When straining, press gently rather than forcing the pulp through, which clouds the syrup.
- A cool placeIn an unheated larder this would have meant somewhere well below room temperature; the refrigerator is a convenient modern stand-in for the two overnight steepings, and keeping the bowl cool guards against off-flavours in warm weather.
- The twenty-minute boilThat is a genuine reduction, not just a dissolving of sugar. Stir until the sugar is fully dissolved before it comes back to the boil, then keep it at a steady simmer in a wide pan; the syrup thickens toward the end and will scorch at the bottom if left unattended.
- Bottling"Cans" here most likely means glass preserving jars, though tinned cans were also used for home putting-up in this period. Fill sterilised bottles or jars while the syrup is still hot and seal at once. Corks should be new and boiled; screw caps are simpler and more reliable, and any bottle that seals tightly will do.
- Yield and servingWith sugar added, two cups of vinegar should give somewhere in the region of a pint and a half of syrup, depending on the sugar quantity used and how far the boil reduces it -- perhaps sixteen to twenty-four glasses at the suggested two or three spoonfuls each. It also works with soda water, or as a sharp note in a vinaigrette.
Drinking vinegars belong to a family of preparations the English-speaking kitchen called shrubs, from the Arabic sharāb, meaning a drink, and they were valued long before refrigeration because sugar and acetic acid together will hold summer fruit through the year in a corked bottle on a shelf. Raspberry vinegar was among the versions found in nineteenth-century American and British household books, appearing both as a hot-weather refresher diluted with water and as a domestic remedy for sore throats and feverish colds. The double steeping described here is a preserving technique, extracting the fruit twice into a single volume of vinegar to concentrate flavour without adding liquid. The method fell out of general use once bottled soft drinks and reliable ice made cold sweet drinks easy, and returned only recently by way of bartenders looking for acidity that is not citrus.