Strawberry Preserves

For most of us, It’s hard to envision a world without refrigerators and freezers. Since Roman times, and no doubt earlier, humans have done their best to keep foods from rotting by drying them; packing them in salt, honey, vinegar, or spices; or smoking them in the hearth. Until relatively recently, fruits and other sweet foods were impossible to preserve without seriously altering their flavor or texture. Early recipes call for drying fruits in the sun or preserving them in salt or in vinegar. (Cherries in vinegar are still served in parts of France as an accompaniment to pâtés.) While storing fruits in honey altered their flavor and texture less than using vinegar or drying them, honey is hygroscopic—it absorbs moisture from the air—and therefore it’s useless for making the candied and preserved fruits that we know today.