To Preserve Barberrijes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the syrup
Remove the barberries from the stalks and weigh them.
Clarify an equal weight of sugar.
Add the whole barberries to the sugar syrup and boil until the color is extracted and the syrup is strong.
Strain and preserve
Strain the syrup and squeeze out all the juice from the barberries.
Place the fine barberries in a pot and pour the almost cold syrup over them.
If the syrup becomes thin or starts to ferment, pour it off, boil it again, and then pour it back over the barberries.
Keep the fruit submerged in the syrup using vine leaves or another weight.
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
- Barberries
- Provide the fruit, color and tart flavor that the syrup carries and preserves.
- Sugar
- Forms a concentrated syrup that preserves the fruit by drawing out water and resisting spoilage.
The step that matters
Keeping the syrup strong and the fruit submerged. A syrup that is too thin can let the fruit ferment. Sugar concentration preserves the barberries, so reboiling a thin syrup restores that protection. Fruit left above the syrup can spoil, so it must stay covered.
“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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