Name: To Preserve Barberries for Tarts
Ingredients: ½ pound barberries; ½ pound loaf sugar

To Preserve Barberries for Tarts

Ingredients

½ pound barberries
½ pound loaf sugar

Directions

Prepare

Pick the barberries from the stalks and weigh them.
In a jar, combine the barberries and an equal weight of loaf sugar.

Cook and store

Place the jar in a kettle of water until the sugar dissolves and the barberries are soft.
The next day, transfer the mixture to a preserving pan and boil for 15 minutes.
Put the barberries into jars and store them in a dry 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

What each ingredient does

Barberries: Provide the tart fruit flavour and the bulk of the preserve.
Loaf sugar: Sweetens the fruit and helps preserve it by drawing out moisture and inhibiting spoilage.

“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.