It's compote time! What do the chefs advise?
Compotes are unforgettable! The jars filled with the harvest have long been an iconic Czech dessert, and they are regaining their place in restaurants that want to preserve their short-term abundance for the whole year. We know how not to mess it up!
1. Cleanliness is key! Therefore, cooking starts with thoroughly rinsing the jars (and lids!) and killing unwanted bacteria. Cooks use a dishwasher and a kettle, hot water or an oven - the washed jars are heated at 130°C on a plate of water for 10 to 20 minutes. You can also put them (with a little water) in the microwave.
Caution! Strict hygiene accompanies the entire process - do not wipe the sterilised jars and transfer them to a clean surface, ideally with tongs.
2. Compote is dependent on sugar, which takes on the role of preservative and is responsible for the shelf life of the compote fruit. The infusion must contain at least 50% sugar, i.e. half a kilo of sugar per litre of water.
3. Sour is good! The balanced taste and shelf life of compotes will be enhanced by lemon juice or citric acid - both of which should be added to the finished (not boiling!) brine so that the boiling does not unnecessarily dry out the citrus freshness. In Eska they use a kilo of lemons (or a bag of acid) for 10 litres of brine.
Seasoning tips:
Lemon juice can be substituted for both pure and flavoured apple or raspberry vinegar, for example. Try replacing some of the liquor with kombucha.
Sour fruit can be incorporated into savoury dishes, such as roasted or dried meats. For the sweet and sour Eska brine you need 6 parts water, 2 parts fermenting vinegar, a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar and spices to taste.
Unripe strawberries or gooseberries are commonly are commonly pickled salted. Salt will do the preserving for now - in Eska they mix the liquor in a ratio of 30 g of salt per litre of water.
4. Spice it up! Cooks will pickle most of the fruit in a basic liquor, as it combines better in recipes. They then spice up some of the compotes with herbs and spices, which mellow beautifully in the brine. Elderflower comes into the strawberry one, red wine, star anise and cinnamon go well with plums, and apricots get a little rum or cumin. What do you pair berries with?
Extra step: Don't pour out the leftover juice from the compotes! It's quite easy to use it to make fermented tibi lemonade, for example.
5. Not all fruit is compoteable! It depends on its ripeness and texture, which also varies depending on the variety. This plays a role especially with strawberries. Preference is given to firmer fruits that are not overripe and wrinkled. For raspberries and blackberries, reach for less ripe fruit - the sweetness is complemented by the compote juice.
6. Put a stone in the apricot and plum jar at the end! This is said to prevent the fruit from darkening and will retain a more intense flavour and aroma.
7. Do not pit the cherries! They will keep their shape all the time in the jar, just like gooseberries, which are put in the compote with the stem.
8. Slice the fruit for the compote into equal sized pieces - When sterilising, the smaller pieces might soften more than you want. For this reason, they are usually combined similarly hard fruits.
9. The compote should reach approximately one centimetre below the rim of the glass - too much oxygen remains in a half-full jar, making it difficult to seal. The fruit should be completely submerged, otherwise you risk it spoiling early.
10. It can be done without brine! Stone fruit can be preserved either on its own or covered with honey or sugar. Depending on the hardness and size of the fruit, cooks regulate the sterilisation conditions - 'dry' compotes are usually preserved for a maximum of 10 minutes at 80 °C.
11. Get a thermometer! Compote sterilisation is carried out for a certain period of time at a precise temperature in order to warm the fruit sufficiently. Professionals have a convection machine - in 100% steam mode, the compotes for 25 minutes at 85 °C. The procedure also works in a home oven.
The larger the volume of the jar, the longer it takes to preserve! The bubbling brine indicates that the fruit has reached the desired temperature and it is time to take the compotes out.
12. Every minute counts! The length of sterilisation affects the taste, but above all the texture of the compote. The fruit must not boil! In Eska, it is poured over with a warm brine, which shortens the boiling time a little. The fruit thus retains the desired consistency and also the proportion of vitamins that would be destroyed by long cooking.
14. The lid makes sure of it! With the new season, you'd better buy a new batch - multiple threads are not 100% reliable and could give way to hostile microbes. At a minimum, check last year's jars - high temperatures cause cracks!
Notes on canning:
Canning (and heat sterilisation) in glass only became widespread in the 18th century and thrived until the 1960s, when freezing took its popularity. In most households, compotes were sterilised in preserving pots - on a wire rack or cloth, covered with water up to the lid.
Nowadays, sterilisation is used also use the oven (heated to about 175 °C). The compotes are placed in a 2 cm layer of water on a baking tray and preserved until bubbles appear in the brine rising to the lid. The oven is then turned off and the jars are left in the oven for a further 30 minutes. By the way, you can also jar in the dishwasher while washing the dishes.
Sterilised preserves (especially jams and marmalades) should cool gradually as the contents of the jar shrink, creating a protective vacuum inside.
There are a number of lidding techniques. At Esca, they opt for screw caps and turn the sterilised jars upside down - in ten minutes the cap is pressed against the jar and seals better.
Source: Eska chefs, chef and picker Tomáš Reisinger, Permacultura CS
