Barberries for Tartlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Weigh the barberries you intend to use.
For every pound of barberries, set aside ¾ pound of loaf sugar.
Cook the fruit
Place the barberries in a stone jar and submerge it in warm water.
Simmer until the fruit is soft.
Transfer the softened fruit to a preserving pan, add the sugar, and boil gently for 15 minutes.
Use only silver utensils due to the acidity of the fruit.
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
- Supply the tart, acidic fruit flavour and the bulk of the preserve.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the tart fruit and, as it concentrates, helps the preserve thicken and keep.
The step that matters
Boiling the fruit with the sugar. As water evaporates, the sugar concentration rises, so boiling too hard or too long can scorch the sugar, darken the colour and make the preserve over-thick or bitter. Gentle boiling keeps the sugar dissolved and the set controlled.
“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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