To Preserve Barberries in Bunches
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the barberries
Reserve the largest bunches of barberries and pick the rest from the stalks.
Make the syrup
Put the picked barberries into enough water to make a syrup for the bunches and boil until soft.
Strain the mixture through a sieve.
For every pint of juice, add ½ lb. of loaf sugar, boil, and skim well.
Preserve the bunches
For every pint of syrup, add 1 lb. of barberries in bunches and boil until they look clear.
Transfer the barberries into pots or glasses and cover with brandy paper.
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 fruit, tartness and flavour that the preserve is built around.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, at this concentration, helps the preserve keep and set.
The step that matters
Skimming after adding the sugar. Sugar dissolved in boiling juice draws foam and impurities to the surface. Skimming them off keeps the syrup clear and stops the preserve from turning cloudy or tasting scorched.
“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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