To Pickle Barberries and Siberian Crabs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Harvest barberries before they are very ripe.
Cut half the length of the stalks from the crabs.
Remove leaves and any discolored barberries.
Place the fruits in stone jars.
Make and check the brine
Boil 6 ounces of salt and the alum in 1 quart of water for 10 minutes to make brine.
Skim the brine.
Cover with boiled brine that has cooled completely.
Check occasionally for scum or mold.
If found, remove it and replace the brine with freshly made brine.
Vinegar pickling
Add alum to enough vinegar to cover the fruits for vinegar pickling.
Boil with a few white peppercorns.
Strain the mixture.
Let cool before pouring over the fruits.
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; its tartness comes through as the pickle is preserved.
- Siberian crabs
- The second fruit, adding bulk and a firm bite to the pickle.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the fruit and slows spoilage in the brine.
- Alum
- Helps the fruit keep its firmness during pickling.
The step that matters
Checking the brine for scum or mold. Scum and mold signal that spoilage organisms are growing in the brine. Removing them and replacing the brine with fresh brine keeps the salt concentration strong enough to preserve 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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