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To Preserve Barberries in Bunches

This recipe preserves barberries by boiling them in syrup and storing them in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Preserve Barberries in Bunches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barberries

  1. Reserve the largest bunches of barberries.

  2. Pick the rest of the barberries from the stalks.

  3. Put the picked barberries into enough water to make a syrup.

  4. Boil the barberries until quite soft.

  5. Strain the boiled barberries through a sieve.

Make the syrup

  1. Add 1 lb of loaf sugar to the juice.

  2. Boil the mixture.

  3. Skim the mixture well.

  4. Add ½ lb of barberries in bunches to the syrup.

  5. Boil until the barberries look clear.

Pot and cover

  1. Transfer the clear barberries to pots or glasses.

  2. Cover with brandy paper.

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 fruit, tartness and flavour that the syrup is built around.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the fruit in it.

The step that matters

Boil until the barberries look clear. Sugar syrup is absorbed gradually as the fruit cooks; stopping too early leaves the fruit cloudy and under-infused, while overcooking can break it apart. Watching for clearness shows the syrup has penetrated 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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