Strawberry Preserve
Ingredients
Directions
Macerate the fruit
Combine 1 pound of sugar with 1 pound of strawberries in a pot.
Boil gently for about 15 minutes, until the fruit is tender.
Pour the mixture into a basin, being careful not to break the fruit, and let it sit overnight.
Drain the juice from the strawberries and place it in a preserving kettle.
Cook and set
Boil the juice until it reaches a jelly‑like consistency, skimming off any foam.
Gently add the strawberries back into the kettle and boil for 5 to 10 minutes, ensuring they remain intact.
Transfer the preserve into small glasses or pots and let them stand uncovered for a week.
If the preserve is not set after a week, repeat the last boiling process.
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
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit, pectin-bearing flesh and flavour that form the body of the jam.
- Sugar
- Draws water out of the fruit and helps the preserve gel and keep its shape.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice to a jelly-like consistency. Juice boiled too briefly stays runny, while boiling too long can darken and over-thicken it. Skimming foam keeps the preserve clear. Pectin and acid set the gel as water evaporates and sugar concentrates, so the endpoint must be judged by sight and set test.
“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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