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Preserve

Preserving Fruit in Bottles

This method preserves fruit in bottles by heating them slowly and sealing with soft corks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Preserving Fruit in Bottles

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Fill and cork

  1. Fill bottles with fruit, leaving space at the top.

  2. Cork the bottles loosely with new soft corks.

Bake

  1. Place bottles in a very slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for four to five hours.

  2. Remove bottles when the fruit begins to shrink inside.

Seal and store

  1. Tighten the corks before the bottles cool.

  2. Store bottles upside down in a rack or basket.

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

Fruit
Is the food being preserved, softening and shrinking slowly in the low oven heat.
New soft corks
Loosely placed corks let steam escape during baking, then are tightened to seal the bottles.

The step that matters

Tighten the corks before the bottles cool. As a sealed bottle cools, the air inside contracts and creates a partial vacuum that pulls the cork tighter. Tightening the corks while the bottles are still warm ensures a firm seal forms during cooling.

“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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