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To Preserve Barberries in Bunches

This recipe preserves barberries by boiling them in a sugar syrup and storing them in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Preserve Barberries in Bunches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil 3 pounds of sugar in ½ pint of water for 20 minutes, skimming off any scum.

Cook the barberries

  1. Add the barberries and heat gently, then boil for 5 to 7 minutes until the fruit is transparent.

  2. Press the berries down into the syrup until they burst.

Jar

  1. Transfer the mixture into jars and cover with skin or thick paper once cooled.

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 tender fruit that becomes transparent in the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, at this high concentration, helps preserve it by binding water.

The step that matters

Boiling the barberries until transparent. Sugar syrup firms and clarifies the skins as the fruit cooks. Stopping too early leaves the fruit opaque, while boiling too long makes the berries collapse before pressing.

“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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