The blog of cooking-ez.com
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!
7,057 16 4.7
Last modified on: July 24th 2019
Keywords for this post:FruitSummerSyrupSugarCompoteJamFruits 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.
1) Prepare your fruits, cut them into small pieces, here rhubarb, put in the cooking pot.
2) Add the powdered sugar, mix briefly.
3) Wait, at least 2 hours, overnight if you want, let the sugar work and melt.
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.
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.
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.
2) Add the powdered sugar, mix briefly.
3) Wait, at least 2 hours, overnight if you want, let the sugar work and melt.
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.
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
Toss the salad
When you've finished preparing a salad, green or otherwise, it's usually time to add the dressing and toss. It's often said to "toss the salad", which means to season and mix. Is it easy? Not so easy...2,2245 March 8th 2024
Half milk, half cream
In a multitude of recipes, savoury or sweet, milk is used as the main ingredient, or at least as the main liquid ingredient. Milk is used instead of water, for example, because milk contains a proportion of fat, which adds roundness and softness to the recipe. This mellowness is very pleasant on...2,182 February 27th 2024
Cutting soft cheeses
As you may have already noticed, when you have to use a "soft" cheese in a recipe - their exact name is "soft cheese" - such as Camembert, Munster or Mont d'or, it's not easy to make anything other than thick slices.2,3335 February 20th 2024
It's spinning too fast!
When you need to grate or slice vegetables, you generally use an electric machine that does all the work: a food processor, a mixer with a "slicer" extension or similar. Are these machines really suitable? Generally speaking, yes of course, but there's one criterion that often poses a problem,...5,2105 November 12th 2023
When I was a kid, I didn't like...
Maybe you've already made this strange observation: when you were a kid, there were things you hated, but as an adult it's almost the opposite? For example, you used to hate spinach or chicory, but now you love it?4,8495 November 5th 2023
Other pages you may also like
The golden-brown finish on puff pastry
Let's take a look at the tricky matter of producing puff pastry with an attractive, golden-brown finish. French pastry chefs call this "dorure" (literally, "gilding"). Behind this quirky term there lurks a real problem (and the solution): when using puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) for a pie, or...39K 24.7 February 8th 2018
Fruits which can ruin your jelly
There are many ways of making a fruit mousse, but one of the simplest is to prepare a fruit jelly (basically a fresh fruit coulis with gelatine) and then mix this jelly before it sets completely with whipped cream. The result is perfect for filling a charlotte, for example. But do beware;...67K4.0 March 6th 2013
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?37K4.3 February 28th 2018
The baker always gild twice
I've already told you about gilding, the beaten whole egg that is spread with a brush on anything that needs to brown in the oven: puff pastry, pastries, etc. and that professionals use a lot, I'm going to come back to this to clarify a bit how to do it, and give you a professional tip.26K4.2 June 9th 2019
The right way to cook potatoes
If you simply boil them (not steam them), or bake them in the oven, at some point you will have to ask yourself the question "are they well cooked?".11K4.7 March 23th 2020
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.