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To Preſerve Barberries in Bunches

Preserves barberries by boiling them in syrup, adding sugar, and storing in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Preſerve Barberries in Bunches

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. Pick the largest bunches of female barberries and remove them from the stalks.

  2. Add enough water to make a syrup.

  3. Boil the barberries until soft.

  4. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

  5. For every pint of juice, add 1½ pounds of loaf sugar.

  6. Boil the mixture.

  7. Skim the mixture well.

Finish and store

  1. Add half a pound of barberries in bunches for every pint of syrup.

  2. Boil until clear.

  3. Carefully place the barberries into pots or glasses.

  4. Cover with brandy papers.

  5. Store for use.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

Female barberries
Provide the fruit and its tartness, which forms the body of the preserve.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the preserve and helps it keep by drawing out water from the fruit.

The step that matters

Boil until clear. Sugar must dissolve fully and the syrup must be boiled enough to thicken and set properly. Under-boiling leaves a runny preserve that spoils more easily, while over-boiling can make it hard and dark.

“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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