Preserved Fruit
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Place the fruit and sugar in an earthen vessel and cover it tightly.
Set the vessel in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the syrup separates from the fruit.
Make the syrup
Once cooled, pour the syrup off, boil it, and pour the hot syrup back onto the fruit.
Finish
The next day, boil everything gently for 20 minutes.
Remove the fruit.
Boil the syrup for an additional 15 minutes.
Pour the syrup over the fruit again.
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
- Fruit
- Provides the main body, flavor and texture of the preserve, and absorbs the syrup as it cooks.
- Loaf sugar
- Draws water out of the fruit and thickens the syrup, sweetening and preserving the fruit.
The step that matters
Gentle boiling of the fruit. Sugar pulls water out of fruit by osmosis and concentrates the syrup. Boiling too hard or too long breaks the fruit apart and makes it mushy, so a gentle simmer keeps the pieces whole while the syrup thickens.
“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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