To Preserve Barberries in Bunches
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Reserve the largest bunches of barberries and pick the rest from the stalks.
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 1½ lb of loaf sugar, boil, and skim well.
Preserve and store
For every pint of syrup, add ½ lb of barberries in bunches and boil until they look clear.
Transfer the barberries into pots or glasses and cover with 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 main fruit flavour and tartness, and hold their shape in the syrup as they cook.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, as it thickens, preserves the fruit by drawing out moisture.
The step that matters
Boiling the bunches until they look clear. Boiling the whole bunches in syrup too briefly leaves them cloudy and underpreserved. Sugar must penetrate the fruit slowly, so the bunches turn translucent and keep their shape rather than collapsing or staying firm.
“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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