Raspberry Vinegar
INGREDIENTS.-3 pints of the best vinegar, 4½ pints of freshly-gathered raspberries; to each pint of liquor allow 1 lb. of pounded loaf sugar and 1 wineglassful of brandy. AVERAGE sugar Cost, 1s. per pint.
Let the raspberries be freshly gathered, pick them from the stalks, and put 1½ pint of them into a stone jar; pour 3 pints of the best vinegar over them, and let them remain for 24 hours; then strain the liquor over another 1½ pint of fresh raspberries.
Let them remain another 24 hours, and the following day repeat the process for the third time; then drain off the liquor without pressing, and pass it through a jellybag (previously wetted with plain vinegar) into a stone jar. Add to every pint of the liquor 1 lb. of pounded loaf sugar; stir them. together, and, when the sugar is dissolved, cover the jar, set it upon the fire in a saucepan of boiling water and let it boil for an hour, removing the scum as fast as it rises; add to each pint a glass of brandy, bottle it and seal the corks. This is an excellent drink in cases of fevers and colds: it should be diluted with cold water, according to the taste or requirement of the patient.
TIME. To be boiled 1 hour.
SEASONABLE. - Make this in July or August, when raspberries are most plentiful.
A raspberry shrub in all but name: fruit steeped in vinegar three times over, sweetened heavily and bottled. The method is sound and needs only translation of units and vessels.
- Quantities3 pints vinegar is 1.7 litres (about 7 US cups); 4½ pints of raspberries is a volume, somewhere around 1.2-1.4 kg of fruit, used in three equal batches of 1½ pint each. Fruit absorbs liquid and the recipe forbids pressing, so you will collect less than 3 pints of liquor: measure what you actually have and allow 1 lb of sugar to each pint, as the recipe directs.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar sold in a cone and broken off as needed, hence "pounded". Ordinary granulated white sugar is the direct substitute, weight for weight.
- Which vinegar"The best vinegar" in a Victorian English kitchen meant strong malt or white wine vinegar at roughly 5 per cent acidity. Malt gives the traditional flavour; white wine vinegar gives a cleaner, brighter result. Avoid balsamic or anything already sweetened.
- A wineglassfulPeriod wineglasses were small: reckon 2 fl oz (60 ml) per pint of syrup. The brandy is a preservative as much as a flavouring, though the sugar and acid do most of the work.
- The three steepingsThis is the hinge of the recipe. Each fresh batch of fruit loads more raspberry into the same vinegar, so do not shorten the 24 hours or reuse spent berries. Steep in glass, glazed stoneware or stainless steel, never bare aluminium, copper or iron.
- Do not press the fruitDrain and let the jellybag work by gravity alone. Squeezing forces pulp and fine solids through and gives a cloudy syrup that will throw a sediment in the bottle.
- The hour in the water bathThe jar stands in a saucepan of boiling water rather than over direct heat, so the syrup cannot go much above 100C and will not scorch. With the jar covered, little water evaporates: the hour mainly dissolves the sugar and heats the syrup right through. A shorter time will dissolve the sugar if you want a fresher-tasting cordial.
- Bottling and keepingFill clean hot bottles and seal. The combination of high sugar, the vinegar's acidity and the brandy keeps it well in a cool dark cupboard, but refrigerate once opened and discard any bottle that shows mould or a yeasty smell.
- ServingIgnore the medicinal framing. One or two tablespoons in a tall glass of cold or sparkling water makes an excellent drink; it is also good over ice cream, whisked into a vinaigrette, or spooned over roast duck.
Fruit vinegars of this kind belong to the family of drinks the English called shrubs, from the Arabic sharab, "a drink", the same root that gives us sherbet and syrup. Before reliable bottled fruit juice, sugar and vinegar were among the household preservatives that could hold a summer flavour into winter. Mrs Beeton's note that it is "an excellent drink in cases of fevers and colds" reflects the standard nineteenth-century view of such cordials as sickroom supplies rather than refreshments: acid drinks were thought to cool a fever and quench the thirst of a patient who could not eat, and they sat in the still-room alongside barley water and beef tea. It is often said to have survived in Yorkshire as a dressing for Shrove Tuesday pancakes, and drinking vinegars have returned to fashion since the 2000s under the shrub name.