1,505 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

Fruits and their syrup

As I write these lines, we are finally in the summer, the holidays are approaching, and above all, the fruits are pouring onto the market stalls, if they are ripe, it's time to enjoy them to the full!

9,059 4.7/5 (16 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Fruit Summer Syrup Sugar Compote Jam

Last modified on: July 24^th 2019

For this post: Comment Follow Send to a friend

Fruits and their syrup

You may be about to start making compotes, jams, or a bunch of other recipes based on cooked fruits, in which case you will probably find yourself mixing sugar and fruit at some point before cooking.

In this case, for a compote for example, you will probably add a little water to start the cooking. It's indicated in a lot of recipes, and you may be used to doing it that way, no worries, it's very classic. It works of course, but it's not great this addition of water : it will have to go away afterwards (longer cooking time) and it will make your fruits taste a little bit less spicy.

Can we do better?

Yes, much better, you have to play on the "syrup" effect between sugar and fruits. When you mix sugar and fruit together, the sugar, which is hygroscopic, pumps the water from the fruit with which it mixes to form a natural syrup. This syrup, as tasty as your fruit, is much better for the start of your future compote or jam.

How to make it?

Very simple:

1) Prepare your fruits, cut them into small pieces, here rhubarb, put in the cooking pot.

fruits coupés

2) Add the powdered sugar, mix briefly.

fruits avec sucre

3) Wait, at least 2 hours, overnight if you want, let the sugar work and melt.

fruits avec sucre fondu

After this time, the syrup has started to form, you can see it by tilting the pan a little. It is pure fruit syrup, quite thick and tasty, the ideal texture to start your cooking which will be 100% fruit + sugar.

fruits avec leur sirop

You can proceed like this with all fruits, for small ones and berries (cherries, blackcurrants, blackberries, raspberries, ...) no need to cut them but you will have to wait a little longer to see the syrup form.

To sum up: When cooking fruit, do not add water, just let the fruit syrup have time to form.

Lasts posts

Always secure your cutting board

When using a cutting board, it's very important that it's stable and doesn't move while you're cutting, for safety's sake. Boards have a natural tendency to slide on the work surface, but here are 2 ways to block them effectively.
July 1^st 20256695

Cherry clafoutis, with or without pits?

When it comes to cherry clafoutis recipes, there's often a camp of those who argue that you absolutely have to leave the stones in because it tastes better, and the other camp (myself included) who prefer cherries without stones, which makes a much more pleasant clafoutis to eat. But is it true...
June 29^th 20257265

Should potatoes be washed twice?

Let's say you have to make a recipe that includes potatoes, let's say sliced, you'll most likely proceed as follows: Peel the potatoes, wash them, slice them, wash them again, pat them dry and add them to your recipe. But there's a "but": depending on the recipe, the second washing may be a bad...
May 19^th 20252,338 15

Grilled bacon is much better in the oven

Some recipes call for thin slices of bacon to be cooked and added to the recipe, or to prepare one of those delicious breakfasts known as "à l'Anglaise".
April 25^th 20252,0775

The thermometer is your friend

There are many recipes or foods that require a (very) precise cooking temperature: foie gras, sugar for caramel, meats and fish, and not forgetting pastries. For these few examples, getting the cooking temperature wrong can spoil the whole recipe or dish: undercooked, it's no good or misses the...
April 10^th 20252,3945

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?

This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .
February 7^th 2017129 K 14.1

Is it really necessary to cream egg yolks?

Let’s try and answer a question that crops up in cookery and patisserie, even if it verges on the existential: do the egg yolks in a custard recipe really need to be beaten until pale, or not?
February 28^th 201841 K4.3

The perfect boiled egg

Making boiled eggs is always a delight and it pleases the young and old alike. This little transgenerational side puts them on the list of "things to do on Sunday evening when you don't know what to do" in many families (including mine)... That said, it's not that simple, you have to pay...
January 30^th 202115 K4.7

Good fridge management

We all have a fridge at home – it's an indispensible part of the kitchen and so much a part of the furniture that we tend not to pay it much attention. But often, out of habit, we don't use it properly. Here are a few tips to help you get more from your fridge. .
April 19^th 201127 K4.4

A memo of utensil weights

You will no doubt have come across this problem while cooking: after starting a recipe, when you already have some ingredients in a pan and have maybe cooked them, you need to know the weight of the pan's contents so that you can take half out, or add the same weight of sugar, for example.
May 9^th 201126 K4.6