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Dessert

Barberry Preserves

A preserve made from barberries, molasses, and sugar, simmered until soft.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Barberry Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the molasses and skim off any foam.

  2. Add the barberries and simmer until soft.

  3. Melt the sugar over moderate heat and skim it clean.

  4. Add the barberries to the melted sugar and simmer until soft.

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Barberries
Provide the fruit body and tart flavor, softening into the preserve as they simmer.
Common molasses
Adds dark color, deep flavor, and sweetness to the preserve.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body, and helps the preserve thicken as it cooks.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam. Foam and scum rise to the surface of boiling molasses and melted sugar. Removing them keeps the preserve clear and clean-tasting.

“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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