Name: To Preserve Barberries
Ingredients: 1 quart ripe barberries; 1 quart spring water; 3 pounds clarified sugar; large bunches of ripe barberries

To Preserve Barberries

Ingredients

1 quart ripe barberries
1 quart spring water
3 pounds clarified sugar
large bunches of ripe barberries

Directions

Make the syrup

Bruise the barberries and add them to the spring water in a pot.
Bring to a boil.
Strain the liquid through a fine sieve.
Stir in the clarified sugar until dissolved.
Add the large bunches of ripe barberries.
Bring to a boil again.
Remove from heat and let sit overnight.

Pack and seal

The next day, take the barberries out of the syrup and place them in glasses.
Boil the syrup until it thickens.
Pour the thickened syrup over the barberries and seal the glasses.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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 tart fruit flavour and colour that define the preserve.
Clarified sugar: Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the fruit by binding water.

“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.