Raspberry syrup for winter: thick, ruby-red, for tea and colds
A syrup from raspberries covered with sugar overnight, the fruit never cooked. The raspberries release their own juice, which is strained through muslin without pressing so it stays clear, then boiled only a few minutes with the rest of the sugar and a pinch of citric acid. Two half-litre bottles from a kilo of berries. In winter a spoonful in tea brings July back, and during a cold it is the classic Polish home addition to a hot cup of tea.
Your own work in that: 55 min.
- Raspberries releasing juice 720 min
- Straining 40 min
- Cooking 15 min
- Pasteurising 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneCover the raspberries with sugar
Don't wash the raspberries unless they are sandy; if so, rinse quickly and dry in a sieve. In a large bowl layer them with 300 g sugar (half the amount). Cover with a cloth and leave somewhere cool for 12 hours, ideally overnight.
Ingredients: 1000 g raspberries · 600 g sugar · ½ tsp citric acid · 100 ml water
TipSugar draws the juice out osmotically, without heat. Juice from raw raspberries has a fresh, lively aroma that cooked fruit never has.
Raspberries and half the sugar in layers, overnightCheck in the morning
By morning the raspberries float in dark red juice and the sugar has dissolved. Stir gently if crystals remain on the bottom and wait another half hour.
Fruit collapsed, juice drawn outStrain without pressing
Line a sieve with a double layer of muslin, set it over a pot and pour in the raspberries. Leave 30 minutes for the juice to drip through on its own. Don't press the pulp: forced-through seeds and flesh cloud the syrup. Cover the remaining fruit with 100 ml water, bring to the boil, strain and add that liquid to the juice; the pulp is good for compote or porridge.
TipThe clarity of the syrup depends only on patience at the sieve. Pressed through muslin it will be cloudy but taste the same; the choice is yours.
Through muslin, dripping on its own, no pressingBoil with the rest of the sugar
Add the remaining 300 g sugar and the citric acid to the juice. Heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves, bring to the boil and boil 3–5 minutes, skimming the foam. No longer: the syrup should pour like syrup, not set like jam, and long boiling kills the raspberry aroma.
TipThe citric acid isn't only for flavour: in a more acidic syrup the ruby colour holds longer and the syrup keeps better. The juice of half a lemon works instead.
Briefly, until the sugar dissolves, foam skimmedBottle
Scald the bottles with boiling water or heat them 10 minutes in the oven at 120 °C; only scald the caps (or rubber seals). Pour the hot syrup through a funnel into the hot bottles, to 2 cm below the neck. Cap at once.
Hot syrup into hot bottlesPasteurise briefly
Stand the bottles in a pot on a folded cloth, add hot water to three-quarters of their height and pasteurise 10 minutes from the boil, over low heat. Lift out onto a cloth and leave to cool. Keeps up to a year in a cool pantry; keep an opened bottle in the fridge and use within a month. In winter a spoonful in tea, over crepes, in sparkling water.
Ten minutes, then into the pantry
Before you start
Without pasteurising
If the syrup is really hot and the bottles scalded, stand the capped bottles upside down for 10 minutes, then turn them upright and leave to cool: the caps should seal. Store cool and use within about six months; keep any bottle whose cap hasn't sealed in the fridge.
Less sugar
You can go down to 400 g per kilo of raspberries, but then pasteurise 15 minutes and use it up by spring. Sugar is the preservative here, not only the sweetness.
From frozen raspberries
Frozen raspberries covered with sugar release their juice even faster, in 4–6 hours. Slightly less vivid in flavour, but in winter it is the only option.