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Dessert

Blackberry Preserves

A preserve made by cooking blackberries with brown sugar until thickened.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick and wash the blackberries carefully.

  2. Weigh ¾ pound of brown sugar for each pound of fruit.

Cook

  1. Dissolve the sugar in a little water.

  2. Add the blackberries and cook until thickened.

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

Blackberries
Provide the fruit base, flavor, and natural pectin that helps the preserves set as they cook.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and deep flavor, and its high concentration helps preserve the fruit and thicken the mixture.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. Pectin and sugar form a gel only at a high enough concentration. Stopping too early leaves the preserves runny, while cooking too long can make them stiff and cause the sugar to darken or taste burnt.

“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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