Jill Nice - Preserves - A beginner’s guide to making jams and jellies, chutneys and pickles, sauces and ketchups, syrups and alcoholic sips

A pickle like Spiced Gooseberry Pickle can be made throughout the year and adds a welcome boost to a cold supper.

SPICED FRUITS AND FRUITS IN ALCOHOL

Spiced fruits are dried or fresh fruit that have been carefully brought to the boil in a well-spiced vinegar, simmered and then transferred to a jar. The vinegar is then boiled to reduce it, strained and poured, while it is still hot, over the fruit. My favourite fruits to use are Hunza dried apricots Spiced Apricots, prunes and mixed dried fruit. After having been left for a month to mature, they make a very welcome appearance at a festive table.

Alcoholic lovelies are fresh fruit, for example, peaches or greengages, which are gently poached and placed into a jar, covered with syrup and topped up quite extravagantly with alcohol. See Peaches in Brandy Wine, Vivien’s grapes in Muscat, Your own pear liqueur, Sloe Gin and Blackcurrant Shrub.

SAUCES AND KETCHUPS

A preserved sauce is the thick, runny reduction of fruit and/or vegetables cooked with vinegar, sugar and spices; it is then sieved before being bottled. These sauces are most often used as flavourings in soups, sauces and stews. Tomato and Brown Spicy are the most familiar shop-bought sauces. There are some marvellous mixtures, which are very economical to make and last ages. Traditional ketchup (not at all like the popular tomato variety) was at one time a pungent mixture of spices, onions, garlic, occasionally mushrooms and berries, which were allowed to macerate in vinegar for a good length of time before being sieved and bottled. Worcestershire Sauce is the most similar commercial product to a traditional ketchup. Homemade sauces bear no relation to commercial varieties – Spicy Fruit Sauce is a welcome addition to the table, whilst Mushroom Ketchup perks up stews and casseroles.

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