Recipe for Strawberry-Port Wine Preserves – Wine makes everything better, even plain old strawberry preserves.
Ingredients
- 5 cups of strawberries, hulled and halved
- 6 1/4 c. granulated sugar
- 2 tsp. lemon zest
- 4 tbl. lemon juice
- 2 tbl. water
- 1 1/2 c. port wine
Instructions
- Reduce port wine to 1 c. in a medium saucepan. Allow to cool, and add 2 tbl. lemon juice.
- In a large stainless steel pan, combine berries, sugar, lemon zest, 2 tbl. lemon juice, and water, stir well, and let sit at room temperature for 4 hours, stirring once an hour.
- If you intend to can the preserves, prepare canner and 6 8 oz. jars and lids.
- Bring the berry mixture to a hard boil, stirring constantly, and boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Whisk pectin into wine until dissolved, then bring wine to a hard boil for 1 minute, whisking the whole time. Add immediately to hot berry mixture, and stir well for 3 minutes to distribute the pectin.
- If canning, ladle the preserves into the prepared jars, leaving 1/4" head space. Clean rims, and attach lids, screwing down the rings to finger-tight. Process in boiling water for 10 minutes, then remove lid from canner and let sit for 5 minutes in the hot water. Remove from the water bath and allow to cool to room temperature before handling. Check to be sure you've gotten a good seal; jars with failed seals should go into the fridge.
- If not canning, transfer preserves to storage container and store in the refrigerator.
Category Fruit
Recipe and Photo: Dennis Wilkinson / CC BY-NC-SA