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Dessert

Syrup From Berries

A homemade berry syrup made by mashing berries, steeping, straining, sweetening with sugar, and sealing in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Syrup From Berries

Ingredients

Directions

Macerate the berries

  1. Place very ripe berries in an earthenware pot and mash them.

  2. Let the mashed berries stand overnight in a warm room.

Strain and sweeten

  1. The next day, heat the mixture but do not boil it.

  2. Strain the mixture through a cloth and measure the liquid.

  3. Add an equal amount of granulated sugar to the measured liquid.

  4. Set the mixture on the stove and stir until the sugar is dissolved, but do not cook.

Seal

  1. Seal the syrup hot in small, air-tight glass jars.

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

Very ripe berries
Provide the flavour and colour of the syrup, with their juice extracted by mashing and standing.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the juice and, at an equal measure, helps preserve the syrup.

The step that matters

Stir in the sugar without cooking. Sugar must dissolve fully over gentle heat without boiling. Boiling can cook off fresh berry flavour and darken the colour, and undissolved sugar can leave grainy crystals in the finished syrup.

“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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