Barbaerry Jam or To Make a Conserve of Barberies

I drove all over Ottawa to try to find on the bush barberries for my class on “winter foraging” for Practicum (local SCA event) and failed. Here is a recipe with dried barberries from a grocery store, like a normal person would do.

To make conserue of Barberies. Take your Barberies and pick them clean, and set the over a soft fire, and put to them Rosewater as much as you think good, then when you think it be sodde enough, strain that, and then seethe it again, and to every pound of Barberies, one pound of sugar, and meat your conserve. The Second part of the good Hus-wiues Iewell (1597)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of dried barberries
2 tbsp rose water
2 tbsp raw cane sugar

Directions:

1. place barberries and rose water in a small sauce pan and simmer the fruit on medium until berries absorb some of the liquid and are quite soft (~5 minutes). Stir constantly.
2. Drain fruit. If the liquid has turned black you’ve burnt it and start again. Weigh fruit.
3. Add fruit back to pot with equal weight of sugar and a tbsp of water. Simmer this mixture on medium high for ~5 minutes. It will be a sauce that should last for some time in the fridge.

The berries actually tasted really good at step 2. Possibly better than after sugar was added, so it just proves you never can tell.

Service Berries

So Saskatoon berries, also called service berries, are a small, purplish, bush berry that tastes like raspberries, blueberries and magic all mixed together raw and even better stewed or in a pie. This berry is of the Rosaceae family, subfamily Amygdaloideae,  genus Amelanchier. This berries are found mostly in North America, with one species in Europe.

Rowan berries, also called service berries, are the bright orange berry on the mountain ash. They are extremely astringent, mostly inedible until simmered with a lot of sugar or honey. This berry is of the Rosaceae family, subfamily Amygdaloideae, genus Sorbus. They are found all over the northern hemisphere. They are less bitter and more bidable if picked after the first frost, or dried, before using.

If a pre-16th century recipe calls for service berries it most likely means the berries that are hard, difficult to de-seed, and very bitter, instead of the easy to use berry that tastes like happiness.

 

To make Marmalade of Damsons of Prunes. (c.1584)
Take Damsons which are ripe, boyle them on the fire with a little fair water until they be soft, then draw them through a course boulter as ye make a tart set it on the fire agayne seethe it on height with sufficient sugar, as you do your quinces, dash it with sweetwater. and box it.

If you will make it of prunes, even likewise do put some apples also to it, as you did to your quinces.

This wise you may make marmalade of wardens, pears, apple and medlars, services, checkers, or strawberries, every one by himself, or mix it together, as you think good. John Partidge, “The Treasures of Commodious Conceits and Hidden Secrets”

Ingredients
* 4 cups of rowan berries, stems removed
* 1 apple, cored and sliced (optional)
* 3 cups of sugar
* 1 tsp rosewater

Directions

1. Wash rowan berries and then place them in a sauce pan (with apple pieces if you like). Add enough water to cover. Bring pan to boil, then reduce to simmer. Simmer for 1 hour, until berries are soft and falling apart.
2. Strain berries through a sieve or a cheesecloth, to get all the juice. Pour juice back into sauce pan and add sugar. Bring to boil for 10 minutes then remove from heat. Add rosewater and stir.
3. Let mixture cool and store covered in a cool dark place.