Strawberry Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup and cook the berries
Combine 2 pints of sugar with ½ pint of boiling water and cook until thick.
Add 3 pints of strawberries and cook gently until the fruit is clear.
Can the preserves
Place the berries in cans and keep them hot while boiling the syrup down to a thick consistency.
Pour off the thin syrup that has risen on the fruit into a saucepan, boil, and can it for sauces and drinks.
Pour the thick syrup over the berries and seal the cans.
Rest and finish
Let the mixture stand for several hours or overnight.
Pour off the syrup, boil until thick, add the berries, boil for 15 minutes, and seal.
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
- Sweetens the preserve and, as the syrup thickens, helps preserve the fruit and give it body.
- Strawberries
- Supply the fruit, flavor and most of the texture of the finished preserve.
The step that matters
Boiling the syrup down to a thick consistency. Concentrating the sugar syrup raises its sugar content, which helps it hold its shape and keeps the preserve from spoiling. Too little reduction leaves it runny; boiling too hard or too long can darken the sugar and toughen the fruit.
“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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