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Dessert

Fruit, Stewed

A simple stew of apples, pears, gooseberries, rhubarb, cherries, and plums cooked with sugar and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Fruit, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel, quarter, and core apples and pears.

  2. Trim tops and tails from gooseberries.

  3. Slice rhubarb and remove the stringy outer skin if old.

  4. Remove stalks from cherries and plums; stones can be left in or removed as preferred.

Stew

  1. Bring water and sugar to a boil, add fruit, and stew gently until tender.

  2. Alternatively, place fruit and sugar in a jar, stand the jar in a saucepan of boiling water, and cook until tender.

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

Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps flavour the syrup the fruit stews in.
Fruit
Provides the main body, flavour and texture of the dish once softened.

“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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