To Preserve Fruit with Salicylic Acid
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar and water for 20 minutes.
Let the mixture cool completely.
Add the preservative
Dissolve the salicylic acid in a little boiling water and add it to the cooled syrup.
Stir well and bottle the syrup.
Preserve the fruit
Place the raw fruit into the cold syrup.
Seal the bottles with corks.
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
- Binds water in the syrup, giving sweetness and reducing the moisture microbes need.
- Salicylic acid
- Acts as the preservative, slowing microbial growth in the syrup. Its legal use as a food additive is restricted in many places.
- Raw fruit
- The food being preserved; its flavor and texture are carried by the syrup.
The step that matters
Dissolve the salicylic acid fully before adding it to the syrup. Salicylic acid dissolves poorly in cold liquid, so it must be fully dissolved in hot water and stirred through the syrup to distribute evenly. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of concentrated acid and weak spots. Check local food additive rules before making this, since salicylic acid is restricted as a food additive in many countries.
“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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