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Dessert

English Strawberry Preserves

A sweet preserve made by boiling strawberries with sugar and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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English Strawberry Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the strawberries

  1. Combine the sugar and water in a pot and boil until the mixture thickens.

  2. Add the strawberries and boil slowly for 15 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool in the preserving pan.

Make the syrup

  1. Strain the syrup.

  2. Boil the syrup alone, skimming off any foam.

  3. When the syrup is boiling well, add the strawberries and boil for 5 minutes.

  4. Remove the strawberries.

Jar and rest

  1. Place them in pots or jars to cool.

  2. Cover the jars.

  3. Do not seal with paper until a week has passed.

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

Strawberries
Provide the fruit that forms the body and flavour of the preserve.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, when boiled, thickens it and helps it set.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup alone, then add the strawberries to boiling syrup. Skimming the foam from the syrup removes impurities that can cloud the preserve. Adding fruit to syrup that is already boiling and then cooking only 5 minutes keeps the berries whole and the flavour fresh rather than overcooked and dull.

“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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