Blackberry Apple Orange Butter
1 kg cooking apples
600 g blackberries
4 unwaxed oranges
4 unwaxed lemons
300 ml cranberry juice
1 tsp juniper berries -- crushed
1 1/8 kg caster sugar 1.
Roughly chop the apples, peel and core included. Place in a preserving pan
with the blackberries. Peel the skin from the oranges and discard; chop the
flesh. Squeeze the juice from the lemons. Add the orange flesh, lemon juice and
skins to the pan. Pour over the cranberry juice and add the juniper berries;
bring gently to the boil. Continue to boil quite hard for 25 minutes until the
fruit is soft and pulpy. 2. Remove the lemon skins and leave to cool; then
squeeze the lemon pulp into the mixture and discard the skins. Push all the pulp
through a fine nylon sieve and weigh; weigh out three-quarters of this
measurement in sugar. 3. Place the pulp and sugar in a pan and dissolve the
sugar over a low heat. Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Simmer for about
15 minutes utnil set; stir often, making sure you mix in the scum as this is
where the pectin is. When setting point is reached, and not before, skim off and
discard the scum, then pot the butter into jars
NOTES : To find out how much sugar to use you must first weigh the pulp.
Three-quarters of this weight is the amount of sugar you add. This recipe
yielded 1.5kg/3lb 5oz pulp, so 1.125kg/2lb 8oz sugar was used. A fruit butter is
a jelly made with the pulp and juice rather than just the juice and sugar.
Spread on scones and bread, or serve with cold pork and crispy crackling or at
the end of a meal with cream cheese.
Civilization and profits go hand in hand.
- Calvin Coolidge