Gooey Goopy

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Need an easy hostess gift or a Christmas present for your brother with the sweet tooth or the grandma who makes the best waffles in the world? With herbal syrups, you’re covered.

Homemade syrups taste brighter and inspire ­experimentation far ­beyond breakfast fare.

HAVE YOU EVER considered making your own syrup? That gooey stuff we pour all over Sunday-morning pancakes and waffles takes on new excitement when it combines the intense flavors of the orchard, vineyard, and herb garden. Generally less sweet than grocery-store varieties,

homemade syrups taste brighter and inspire experimentation far beyond breakfast fare. Add a splash to a wine cooler or Italian soda, spoon some over ice cream or pound cake, or cool off on a hot day with syrup drizzled over shaved ice. You’ll find other suggestions for using them with the recipes below and in the box on page 32.

Syrups are easy to make. Use fresh fruits in season, a single favorite or a combination of several, or frozen fruits (cut down on the sugar if they’re already sweetened). Vary the herbs ­according to your whim or their availability. Consider the recipes below merely as starting points.

Store syrups in clean, tightly cap­ped bottles. Syrups may be refrigerated with little loss of flavor for as long as two months or frozen for up to six months (Vanilla Syrup with Lavender will keep, refrigerated, for at least eight months). Although syrups that have been frozen and thawed are somewhat less flavorful than freshly made syrups, they are unquestionably better than their store-bought counterparts.

When you discover how delicious these syrups are and how easy they are to make, you’ll want to make some to give your friends and family. Tie on a ribbon and include a tag with suggestions for use and storage. Don’t forget to save some for yourself.

Syrup success

Making syrups requires only ordinary kitchen equipment—a heavy, nonreactive saucepan, a food processor or blender, a mesh strainer, and a candy thermometer. I use bottled or filtered water—the better the water, the better the syrup—but tap water may be used if you prefer.

Syrups vary in their thickness from very runny to just barely pourable, mainly because of their varying levels of fruit pectin. This natural substance found in fruits thickens syrups, jams, and jellies. Both the pectin and sugar content vary widely from one kind of fruit to another. Apples, gooseberries, currants, and grapes contain a lot of pectin. Underripe fruits tend to contain more pectin and less sugar than ripe ones of the same kind. Using underripe fruits that are high in pectin in a syrup recipe may result in a jelly instead of a pourable syrup.