Serbia's beloved raspberry cordial: a deep-red syrup of the country's 'red gold' boiled down with sugar and a little citric acid, kept through the year and diluted with cold water as the soft drink of the Serbian summer
Origin: Arilje and western Serbia
From the journey of Raspberry.
In Serbia the raspberry is 'red gold', a pillar of the rural economy and a matter of genuine national pride: the hilly country of western and central Serbia, above all around the town of Arilje, is outstandingly suited to the cane, and Serbia became one of the largest raspberry producers on earth and for a time the world's greatest exporter of frozen raspberries. That national crop has its domestic reflection in sok od maline, the raspberry cordial or syrup that is one of the most beloved homemade drinks in the country. Made each summer when the fruit is at its cheapest and best, the raspberries are cooked with sugar and a little citric acid, strained, and bottled as a thick, deep-red concentrate that keeps through the year; diluted with cold water, it becomes the raspberry drink that is, for Serbs, the taste of childhood and of hospitality, offered to every guest and drunk through the hot months in place of any fizzy bought thing. The citric acid both sharpens the flavour and helps the cordial keep, and the whole point is a syrup that captures the pure, fresh flavour of ripe summer raspberries to be enjoyed long after the season has passed. It belongs to the same tradition as the Serbian slatko, the whole-fruit spoon preserve set before visitors, both expressions of a culture in which the raspberry is woven into everyday welcome.
The dilution is a matter of taste; start at one part cordial to five of water and adjust. Citric acid is the traditional preservative and gives the characteristic bright tartness, but the juice of two or three lemons may be used instead. For long keeping without refrigeration, some cooks add a very small amount of sodium benzoate as commercial producers do, though bottling hot into sterilised bottles is usually sufficient for a home batch used within the year. The strained pulp need not be wasted entirely; a little can be cooked with extra sugar into a rough spread.
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