Chef Juliette
Bavaroise
Bavaroise turns the ribbon stage into a drink: yolks and sugar, boiling tea and milk, and Kirsch whisked into a light crown of foam. Keep the whisk moving, and the café comes home.
Culinary Explorer
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Raspberry-flavoured, Red-currant Water
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2940, Raspberry-flavoured, Red-currant Water, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Eau de groseilles framboisée keeps red and white currants bright, lets ripe raspberry supply the perfume, and dissolves sugar without heat: a cold ruby refresher made with sieve, spoon, and patience.
Beverages
French
Picnic
Outdoor Dining
Quick Meal
25 min
Active Time
0 min cook•45 min total
YieldAbout 1 quart (1 litre), 4 to 6 glasses
Eau de groseilles framboisée (raspberry-flavoured red-currant water) teaches restraint. The one true thing to know before touching a pan is that no pan belongs here. Red and white currants provide the bright, tart body, ripe raspberries provide the perfume, and heat would cook that perfume straight out of the bowl.
The original preparation assumed a basin, a silver spoon, a washed piece cut from block ice, a reliably cool pantry, and a saccharometer waiting to judge the sugar degree. A fine-mesh sieve, a nonreactive bowl, a stainless-steel spoon, one large rinsed ice cube, and the refrigerator do the same work at home. Loaf sugar becomes caster sugar because it is still pure sugar but dissolves more willingly in cold liquid. Those details were the old kitchen's scaffolding. The raw sieving, the fixed proportions, and the cold twenty-minute rest are the dish itself, so they stay. The book's modest basinful already becomes one generous home pitcher, suitable for one cook and four to six glasses, with no further reduction needed.
Rub the fruit patiently enough to express its juice, but don't mill the seeds against the sieve until they turn bitter. That is the step that decides the drink. Keep the fruit raw from its first crush to the final glass.
Eaux de fruits belong to the French classical refreshment service, particularly the Parisian dining room and the bourgeois summer table, rather than to one provincial larder. They traveled easily from formal service, where a saccharometer fixed the sweetness, to garden and picnic tables requiring little more than ripe fruit, a sieve, sugar, water, and ice. Despite the English word “water,” this is not a faint infusion: the currants are expressed raw, while raspberry acts as a fragrant seasoning rather than the drink's main body.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh red currants
Quantity
1½ cups (360 ml / 170 g)
stemmed, gently rinsed, and thoroughly dried
fresh white currants
Quantity
1½ cups (360 ml / 170 g)
stemmed, gently rinsed, and thoroughly dried
very ripe fresh raspberries
Quantity
1 cup (240 ml / 115 g)
gently rinsed and thoroughly dried
cool filtered water
Quantity
2⅓ cups (570 ml / 570 g)
superfine caster sugar
Quantity
⅞ cup (210 ml / 170 g)
used as the cold-dissolving equivalent of loaf sugar
clear ice
Quantity
1 large piece (about 85 g)
rinsed under cold water
Cherry Water (No. 2939)
Quantity
Reference only; 0 ml / 0 g added
use only its 9° saccharometer standard
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh red currantsstemmed, gently rinsed, and thoroughly dried | 1½ cups (360 ml / 170 g) |
| fresh white currantsstemmed, gently rinsed, and thoroughly dried | 1½ cups (360 ml / 170 g) |
| very ripe fresh raspberriesgently rinsed and thoroughly dried | 1 cup (240 ml / 115 g) |
| cool filtered water | 2⅓ cups (570 ml / 570 g) |
| superfine caster sugarused as the cold-dissolving equivalent of loaf sugar | ⅞ cup (210 ml / 170 g) |
| clear icerinsed under cold water | 1 large piece (about 85 g) |
| Cherry Water (No. 2939)use only its 9° saccharometer standard | Reference only; 0 ml / 0 g added |
Equipment Needed
- •Fine-mesh stainless-steel sieve, about 18 to 20 cm wide
- •Deep nonreactive bowl, at least 1.5-litre capacity
- •Flexible silicone spatula or wooden spoon
- •Stainless-steel stirring spoon
- •Chilled 1-litre glass pitcher
- •Optional saccharometer or refractometer
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the cold setup
Set a fine-mesh sieve over a deep glass, ceramic, or stainless-steel bowl. Chill a 1-litre pitcher and the serving glasses. Keep every pan in the cupboard: this preparation depends on raw fruit perfume, and even gentle heat would flatten the raspberry and turn the currants toward cooked jam.
Dry the rinsed fruit well. Clinging wash water weakens the carefully set proportion before the measured filtered water is added. - 2
Sieve the fruit raw
Put the red currants, white currants, and raspberries into the sieve in manageable handfuls. Rub them through with a flexible spatula or the back of a wooden spoon, pressing the soft flesh against the mesh and scraping the expressed fruit from the underside into the bowl. Continue until the sieve holds mostly skins and seeds, but stop before grinding the exposed seeds hard against the mesh. If a little seed grit passes through, ça se rattrape: rinse the sieve and pass the liquid through it once more without pressing.
- 3
Dissolve the sugar cold
Pour the filtered water into the raw currant liquid, add the caster sugar, and lower in the rinsed piece of ice. Stir steadily with a stainless-steel spoon until the sugar is dispersed. Stainless steel is the home equivalent of the original silver spoon, clean and nonreactive against the sharp fruit. If crystals remain after the resting time, keep the bowl cold and stir for another five to ten minutes. Do not reach for a hot syrup; the cold dissolution is the dish.
- 4
Hold and check degree
Keep the bowl refrigerated for 20 minutes, stirring from the bottom every five minutes as the ice softens the drink. The source reaches to Cherry Water (No. 2939) only for its degree, not for any added liquid: the traditional saccharometer target is the same 9°. If using a modern refractometer, a reading close to 16 °Brix is a practical equivalent; without either instrument, the fixed fruit, water, and sugar ratio carries the intended balance.
- 5
Stir and serve
Give the eau de groseilles framboisée one final stir and pour it, with the remaining piece of ice, into the chilled pitcher. It should be jewel-red and lightly cloudy, sharp with currant at the first sip and fragrant with raspberry afterward. Serve at once in cold glasses. À table!
Chef Tips
- •This drink truly wants currant season because there is no heat, alcohol, or spice behind which tired fruit can hide. Outside the season, currants frozen at full ripeness make a respectable cousin if thawed overnight in the refrigerator with all their juices, though the drink will be cloudier and less perfumed.
- •White currants are not decoration. They soften the stern acidity and dark colour of the red currants while keeping the total currant weight at the source's twelve ounces. If your market has only red currants, the drink will still work, but it will be darker and more severe.
- •Use caster sugar, not confectioners' sugar. Caster sugar is plain sucrose ground finely enough to dissolve cold; confectioners' sugar often contains starch, which leaves the drink chalky and dull.
- •Serve the eau de groseilles framboisée the day it is made. It remains safe under refrigeration for about 24 hours, but the raw raspberry perfume begins fading well before then.
Advance Preparation
- •Stem, rinse, and dry the currants up to four hours ahead, then refrigerate them in a covered container. Rinse the raspberries only shortly before sieving because very ripe berries collapse quickly.
- •The finished drink may be prepared up to four hours before serving and kept covered in the refrigerator. Stir it thoroughly before pouring because a little fine fruit pulp naturally settles.
- •For a picnic, transfer the finished drink to a cold, tightly sealed bottle and carry it in an insulated bag. Serve within four hours while its raw-fruit perfume is still clear.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 220g)
Calories
175 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
1 mg
Total Carbohydrates
42 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
39 g
Protein
1 g
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