Strawberry Sweetmeats
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a bright tin preserving pan, combine the sugar and boiling water.
Heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot.
Cook the strawberries
Add the strawberries and place the pan directly on the stove.
Boil gently for 10 minutes, or longer if the fruit is not clear.
Avoid boiling violently to keep the strawberries intact.
Transfer the strawberries to cans and keep them hot.
Thicken and can
Boil the syrup down until it is very thick and rich.
Drain off the thin syrup and fill the cans, then screw down the tops.
If there's excess syrup, flavor it with vinegar, boil briefly, then bottle and cork.
Turn the cans occasionally as they cool to keep the strawberries from flattening.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Forms the thick, sweet syrup that preserves the strawberries and gives them their clear, rich appearance.
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit that is cooked in the syrup and becomes the sweetmeat itself.
The step that matters
Boil gently. Vigorous boiling breaks up the strawberries and makes the syrup cloudy, so the fruit must simmer gently to stay whole and clear.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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