Essence of Raspberry

We went fruit picking again. Remember this pie? All those beautiful berries are from Weaver's Orchard, a bit of a drive from Philadelphia, but well worth the trip. And one of the primary reasons for picking this particular farm was a NYT recipe for raspberry vinegar, discovered by a fellow fruit-picking Philadelphia foodie (say it ten times fast). Turns out it's less of a vinegar and more of a syrup, which only increases its potential uses. Which is good, because this recipe makes a LOT.

(Not that I wanted to share it with any of the free-loading fruit flies that have recently invaded our kitchen)





The pile of raspberries is supposed to macerate in a bit of red wine vinegar for three days. I kept getting distracted (pie! ice cream! internet!) and let it sit for about five. I pretended that this was intentional and improves the intense raspberryness. Maybe it did.

The mixture is then strained through cheesecloth. SUPER MESSY. There was juicy red sweetness on my hands, on the counter, on the floor, and maybe on one of the cats. Luckily some also made it into the bowl.

The reason this is more of a syrup than a vinegar is because the next step involves adding the liquid to a slightly-larger-than-equivalent pile of sugar and simmering it. This stuff is SWEET.



The final step works really well if your housemate has a cool looking empty wine bottle available.

This recipe complimented complemented our raspberries so well. We arrived at the height of the season, meaning the raspberries were extremely sweet and, while flavorful, the individual raspberry taste was not particularly strong. The concentrated syrup, however, is intensely raspberry-y. It's a marvelous accompaniment to pancakes, seltzer, or a little rum. And I'm looking forward to finding more uses for it. It's going to be a lovely reminder of summer once the hot, muggy berry season is past.

Photo credit goes to a lovely lady.