Preserved Green Gages
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the syrup
Prick each green grape with a needle to prevent bursting and leave a portion of the stem on each.
Make a syrup by combining 6 pounds of sugar with 1½ cups of water.
Dissolve ¼ ounce of isinglass in warm water and add it to the syrup.
Boil the syrup, skimming off any foam.
Cook the fruit
Wash the kettle, return the syrup to it, and add the fruit.
Boil until the fruit looks clear when held up to the light.
Jar and seal
Remove the grapes one at a time and strain the syrup.
Place the fruit in jars and pour the warm syrup over them.
Seal the jars the next day.
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
- Green gages
- The fruit is the main ingredient, cooked until it looks clear in the syrup.
- Sugar
- Forms the thick syrup that sweetens the fruit and helps preserve it.
- Isinglass
- A gelatin-like agent that helps the syrup set and gives the preserved fruit body.
The step that matters
Boil until the fruit looks clear. Boiling the fruit in concentrated sugar syrup draws water out and lets sugar replace it, so the fruit turns translucent. Stopping too early leaves it opaque and less well preserved.
“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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