Hodge Podge

Today was a day where I had to rest my back. Not a very useful day when I really needed to do something. I was driving myself mad. Especially knowing I had some gorgeous fresh soft fruits waiting for my attention. So I got help.

Himself my poor and devoted long suffering partner brought me the things I needed and I got started.

Hodge Podge is an old old country recipe. one of the most wonderful and basic of all treats. If you have never made any kind of preserve before this is the one to try.

You need to have a ceramic or glass container. I used an old biscuit barrel with a seal on the wooden lid. You really don't want to use plastic or metal for this. You can of course make this in lots of 1lb jam jars but it won't be as awesome as it is if you make a big bulk of it.

This is a very vague recipe I know but your containers will be different sizes and shapes and that will all change what the measurements will be. 

Ingredients


Mixed soft fruits, strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, white currants, blue berries, anything at all.

Golden Granulated Sugar to pour into the jar. it needs to be enough to almost fill the gaps between the fruit.

Brandy,Vodka or Rum enough to fill the container and some for topping up if needed.

Method

Take all the stalks and leaves off your fruits and layer them in the container. Try and keep them fairly level without too many gaps but don't squash the fruit either.

 Pour in the sugar a bit at a time and shake it. adding more and more until there is little sugar that will move down into the container.

Now for the best bit. Add the booze. whether you have chosen Brandy or Vodka do the same with either. Be aware it may take a moment for it to go through and it may need a little shake to help it through the sugar. After that make sure your fruit is at least an inch covered with the liquid over the top of it. 

Those air bubbles are why you will need top up booze. Over the first couple of weeks whilst this all settles little pockets of air will pop up from time to time  So do check your jar daily for a week, by which time it should have settled properly and you should have no issues other than perhaps evaporation if your lid doesn't seal properly.

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This and similar forms of preserving fruit have been used for centuries.  Rum is very traditional as is Brandy. In fact you may have heard of a container called a Rumtopf which are made specifically for this purpose. The traditional ones are made so there is a seal that can be made with water around the lid like this one.

Newer ones don't have this seal and use silicon instead. Which is what my biscuit barrel has. There are also other ways of doing this. For every family in every town in Europe there is a different way. Find the one you like and stick with it.

I know this is a little off the wall for a gluten-free and vegan recipe but quite honestly who said we can't have some wonderful treats too. This one of course was easy enough for me to prepare with the ingredients and materials brought to me in bed today whilst I was resting my back. So yes those are my very clean feet you see holding onto the container to make sure it didn't topple!

Until next time