Name: To Preserve Morello Cherries
Ingredients: 1 gill of water; three principal species of cherries--the _apronian

To Preserve Morello Cherries

Ingredients

1 gill of water
three principal species of cherries--the _apronian

Directions

Prepare the syrup

To every lb. of cherries allow 1-1/4 lb. of sugar and 1 gill of water.
Select ripe cherries; pick off the stalks, and reject all that have any blemishes.
Boil the sugar and water together for 5 minutes.

Cook the cherries

Add the cherries to the boiling sugar-water and boil for 10 minutes, removing the scum as it rises.
Turn the fruit into a pan and let it remain until the next day.
The next day, boil the mixture again for another 10 minutes, and, if necessary, skim well.

Pot and store

Put the cherries into small pots; pour over them the syrup.
When cold, cover the jars with oiled papers, and the tops of the jars with tissue-paper brushed over on both sides with the white of an egg.
Keep in a dry place.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Cherries: Provide the fruit and flavour that the preserve is built around.
Sugar (in the method): Sweetens the preserve and, at high concentration, helps preserve the fruit.
Water: Dissolves the sugar into a syrup that the cherries cook in.

The step that matters

Boiling the cherries the second day. Cherries left in syrup overnight release juice and the sugar concentration shifts, so the second boil must be done thoroughly. Skimming off foam keeps the preserve clear and stable.

“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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To Preserve Morello Cherries