To Preserve Barberries in Bunches
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Tie the barberries in bunches of four or five sprigs.
Make the syrup
In a pot, boil 1 pound of sugar in 1 pint of water for 20 minutes.
Cook and jar
Add the barberries to the syrup and gently stir.
Boil for 5 to 7 minutes until the barberries are transparent and have burst.
Pour the mixture into jars and cover with skin or thick paper once cooled.
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
- The fruit itself; its skin softens and bursts as it cooks in the syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, in a thick syrup, helps preserve it by binding water.
The step that matters
Boil until the barberries are transparent and have burst. Stopping too early leaves the fruit firm and the syrup thin. Continued boiling evaporates water, concentrating the sugar so the syrup thickens and the fruit cooks through and turns clear.
“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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