To Preserve Barberries in Bunches
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Tie the barberries in bunches of four or five sprigs.
Boil the sugar in water for 20 minutes, skimming off any scum.
Cook the barberries
Add the barberries and heat gently, then boil for 5 to 7 minutes until transparent.
Press the berries down into the syrup until they burst.
Jar and store
Transfer to jars and cover with skin or thick paper once cool.
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
- The main fruit, supplying the tart flavour and the colour of the preserve.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the fruit by drawing out water.
The step that matters
Add the barberries and heat gently, then boil for 5 to 7 minutes until transparent.. Gentle heat lets the syrup soak into the berries without bursting their skins too early. Boiling too hard or too long breaks the fruit down and turns it mushy instead of clear and whole.
“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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