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General Directions for Preserved Fruit

A method for preserving fruit by boiling with sugar and water, then storing in sterilized jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,079 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

General Directions for Preserved Fruit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Prepare the fruit and weigh it.

  2. For each pound of fruit, use one pound of sugar.

  3. Boil solid fruits in water until tender before adding sugar.

  4. Save the water for making jelly or sauces.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. Make a syrup by boiling the sugar with ½ cup of water for each pound of sugar.

  2. Add the fruit to the syrup and cook slowly until transparent.

  3. Transfer to sterilized jars and cover securely.

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,079 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fruit
Provides the body of the preserve and its flavor; solid fruits are softened first so they become tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, at high concentration, helps preserve the fruit by drawing out moisture.
Water
Dissolves the sugar into a syrup that the fruit cooks in evenly.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until transparent. Slow cooking lets sugar syrup penetrate the fruit gradually, so it turns clear and holds its shape. Rushing with high heat can break the fruit apart and scorch the sugar.

“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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