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Preserve

To Preserve Barberries in Bunches

A method for preserving barberries by boiling them in syrup and storing them in bunches.

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

Prepare the syrup

  1. Reserve the largest bunches of barberries and pick the rest from the stalks.

  2. Put the picked barberries into enough water to make a syrup.

  3. Boil the barberries until quite soft, then strain through a sieve.

Make the preserve

  1. For every pint of juice, add 1 lb of loaf sugar, boil, and skim well.

  2. For every pint of syrup, add ½ lb of barberries in bunches.

  3. Boil until the barberries look clear, then transfer to pots or glasses.

  4. Cover with paper.

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 fruit flavour and tartness that the preserve is built around.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the preserve and helps it set and keep by drawing out water.

The step that matters

Skimming after adding the sugar. Sugar dissolves into the juice and foam rises to the surface as it boils. Skimming removes this foam and impurities, leaving a clearer, cleaner preserve.

“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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