To Peeserve Berries Whole
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Select fruit that is not too ripe and pick over it immediately after gathering.
Wash the fruit only if absolutely necessary and place it in glass jars until each is two-thirds full.
Make and add the syrup
In a porcelain kettle, combine 1 cup of water and 1 pound of sugar for every 2 pounds of fruit and bring to a slow boil.
Pour the syrup over the berries in the jars, filling them to the brim.
Heat and seal
Place the jars in a pot of cold water on the stove and bring the water to a boil until the fruit is scalding hot.
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
- Provides the whole-berry texture and flavor that the syrup surrounds and holds in the jar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, in syrup form, helps preserve it by binding water that microbes need.
The step that matters
Heating the filled jars until the fruit is scalding hot. Heat drives air out of the jars and fruit and helps create a vacuum seal as they cool. Fruit that does not reach full heat may not stay safely preserved, so the heating must be carried through.
“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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