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To Preserve Fruit

Fruit preserved by layering with sugar in bottles and simmering.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the fruit by peeling and cutting it into small pieces.

  2. In wide-mouthed bottles, layer the fruit and sugar, filling the bottles nearly half full before adding sugar to prevent it from sinking.

  3. Cover each bottle with three pieces of wet bladder, tied securely.

Cook and store

  1. Place the bottles in cold water, ensuring they do not touch each other.

  2. Simmer over low heat until done: damsons for about 1 hour, cherries for less, and currants and raspberries for even less.

  3. Once cooled, cover the bottles with leather and store in a cool, dry place.

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
Provides the main flavour and bulk of the preserve.
Fine moist sugar
Sweetens the fruit and helps preserve it against spoilage.

The step that matters

Simmer over low heat until done. Simmering gently in water bath heats the fruit evenly without boiling, which would break it up. Timing differs by fruit, so the cook must judge doneness rather than rely on one duration.

“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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