To Preserve Berries Whole
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Select fruit that is not over-ripe, pick over carefully, and wash.
Fill glass jars about three-fourths full with the fruit.
Make the syrup
In a pot, combine sugar and water to make a syrup and boil slowly for 15 minutes.
Pour the syrup over the berries in the jars, filling them to the top.
Process and seal
Place the jars in a boiler of cold water with straw or excelsior at the bottom.
Boil the water until the fruit is scalding hot, adding more syrup as needed.
Remove the jars and seal them tightly.
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
- Fruit
- Forms the whole-berry body of the preserve and supplies the flavor and texture.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the fruit's shape and keeping quality.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar to make the syrup that fills the jars.
The step that matters
Boil the water until the fruit is scalding hot. The fruit must be heated through so it is safely preserved and sealed. Heating too little can leave the centre cool, while overheating can soften the berries and make them lose their shape. Keep the syrup topped up so the fruit stays 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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