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Preserve

Canned Fruits and Vegetables

A method for preserving fresh fruit and vegetables in jars using a hot syrup and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Plum and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Canned Fruits and Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and syrup

  1. Select perfectly fresh and sound fruit, carefully pick over to avoid any ill flavor.

  2. Prepare a hot syrup by dissolving sugar in water.

Fill the jar

  1. Rinse the jar in hot and cold water.

  2. Place a wet hot cloth in a pan and set the jar on it.

  3. Insert a silver spoon into the jar.

  4. Pour in a cup of syrup.

  5. Fill with fruit to the top.

  6. Remove the spoon.

  7. Cover the fruit with syrup.

Cool and seal

  1. Allow the jar to cool for 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Fill to the top with syrup or hot water.

  3. Seal the jar and tighten the lid once cooled.

  4. Store in a cool, dark place.

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. Plum + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Plum + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pear + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Peach + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together114 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Plum + quincetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together92 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, dissolved in water, forms the syrup that covers it.
Fresh fruit
Provides the flavor and texture of the preserve; sound, ripe fruit keeps best.

The step that matters

Covering the fruit fully with syrup. Fruit left above the syrup line is exposed to air and can spoil or discolor. Keeping every piece submerged and filling to the top limits the air space where mold can grow.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (plum, peach, pear, pineapple, grape, tomato, quince):

  1. Apricotfits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against plum, peach, pear, pineapple, grape, tomato, quince. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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