One of the best ways to preserve wild fruit and berries I know of, my berry gastrique is a sort of sweet and sour syrup. It'll be a favorite at your house too once you give it a try.
Sweet and sour syrup, or gastrique as it's known among chefs, is a little-known cousin to your typical wild fruit preserves that is one of my favorite to keep on hand all year round. It's a simple, easy way to put up your wild fruit, and i've especially designed this one to work for fruits with lots of seeds, skins, and other things that might get to be a bit much in jam or jelly.
Traditionally, gastrique just refers to a sort of sweet and sour sauce incorporating vinegar, often made with chicken stock or other things, but nowdays, depending on who you ask, it's used to describe different types of syrupy sauces, typically using fruit, but not always. I've taken the liberty to make it into a shelf-stable preserve alternative to typical jams and jellies. Because variety.
Chokecherries (Prunus virginiana, pictured) as well as wild black cherries (Prunus serotina) are a perfect example (and my personal favorite) but just about any ripe little fruit will work, especially juicy, dark things like wild grapes, elderberries, raspberries, or other Rosoideae like blackcap raspberries. The darker and seedier, the better.
The proportions here will give you about a qt jar, or two pints, and the best part of all is that if you look closely, you'll see you don’t need a recipe, but I've included one for your first go-round. Put your fruit in a saucepot and barely cover with 1:2 water and vinegar (or 50/50) then boil, mash, strain the liquid, and combine it with equal parts by volume of sugar and boil for a few minutes, then pour into canning jars, turn upside down to seal, or can in a water bath. The gastrique syrup can also be stored in the fridge.
The addition of vinegar is important here, typically only water and sugar are used in preservation methods like this, but adding some vinegar gives you the flexibility to use is with game meat, as well as with desserts, pancakes, ice cream bases, drinks, etc. Can you make it without vinegar? Sure, but then it's just sugar syrup, and that gets too sweet for me.
The other secret too, is that vinegar, like alcohol, has a sort of magic property when it comes into contact with fruit and things with strong, fruity aromas. Think of the sauce here as a sort of dual-flavor extraction method. Try it out with the small batch I outline below to get the hang of it, then feel free to freestyle and create your own batches, blends, etc. If it doesn't become your new favorite fruit preserve, I'll send you a full refund.
Sweet and Sour Cherry, Berry or Grape Syrup
Ingredients
- 5 cups chokecherries raspberries, wild grapes, elderberries, highbush cranberries, or another small berry with a lot of pit/seeds and little fruit/juice
- 1 cups water or substitute fruit juice like cherry or grape
- 2 cup white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar for dark fruits
- 3 cups sugar
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Wash the berries, then add the water, and vinegar to the pot.
- The berries should be just barely covered by liquid, with a few bobbing around here and there, a technical term we call “floating hippos” in the kitchen.
- Bring the pot to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes on low heat. Mash the berries, or use a hand blender to break them up, simmer for a few minutes more, then strain the liquid and combine it with it’s volume of sugar (equal parts). Boil for another 5 minutes, or until the syrup barely coats the back of a spoon, then transfer to jars and store. The syrup will be shelf stable canned in small jars and kept in a pantry, frozen, or refrigerated.
Sara
Mine did not set. I thought it lightly coated the spoon after simmering for five minutes after adding the sugar. It is the consistency of water on the jars though after cooling overnight. Would you suggest rebooking with a bit of gelatin to thicken it?
Alan Bergo
It’s a syrup, it’s not supposed to set.
Cneuor
I am looking for a solution for making a viscous cherry syrup that is not too sweet and does not freeze to solid ice or crystalize as water does. I want to use it as swirls in ice cream. Will this recipe work for my requirements? Is there something else I could add to make it "freeze-proof?"
Alan Bergo
This will work.
Molly
Made this with a few different varieties of homegrown grapes. Really nuanced/complex/interesting flavor. I love it. I could imagine using it for a sauce on ice cream or steak. I didn’t have red wine vinegar so I did a blend of balsamic, white vinegar and red wine. I tasted it after first mash/boil and decided not to add sugar, I believe the grapes were sweet enough to round it all out. I could definitely see a tart wild berry needing some sugar. Really great, simple recipe - thank you!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Molly.
Emily
If using grapes for this do you need to worry about the tartaric acid mentioned in the wild grape juice recipe? Can you follow the same strategy of letting it settle overnight and then pouring the liquid out or would the vinegar & sugar impact that? Thanks a bunch!
Alan Bergo
You’re consuming such a small amount with the syrup it’s a non issue.
Kit Aro
Thank you for sharing your story and recipe! I just made sand cherry gastrique from foraged berries because I stumbled upon both the berries on the shores of Lake Michigan, and then your recipe online! I am enjoying a vodka cocktail with the freshly made gastrique! Very yummy! However, I am NO chef. Any chance you have a salad dressing recipe using this gastrique? Or a simple recipe of any sort. It’s all new to me, but I made a lot! I really appreciate your inspiring story. I just need more help to use my lovely unique gastrique!!
Alan Bergo
Hey Kit. Good on you for using sand cherries, I just love them. For a salad dressing, all you need to do is season the greens with a tiny bit of oil. Warm the gastrique so that it's nice and loose, but not hot. Drizzle a tiny bit over the greens, mix, add salt and pepper to taste. Fresh herbs are great if you have some torn mint, basil, etc. Also great drizzled over bowls of fresh fruit and yogurt, pancakes, and drinks of course.
Kit Aro
Thank you so much! I will try that tonight!
Sharon
The tiny bits of poison contained in any fruits/veggies, if taken in in small amounts, are used medicinally by the body. The Little Cyanide Cookbook from the 1970s (maybe 80s) explains this in detail. Little poisons can easily help to kill cancers, for instance, the book surmises. Pretty tasty recipes!
Heather
Hi Alan, I love your book and your website and I was so excited recently to come across a fallen black cherry tree that was completely loaded top to bottom with fruit because it meant I could finally try making your bird cherry cake and this gastrique! I'm wondering if you've ever done anything with the black cherry mash and pits that are left over from making this. I figured I could at least infuse the pits in alcohol but is there enough flavor in the mash to include it as well? And if so, do you think it would work better to grind the pits like you mention in the bird cherry cake post?
(I also just finished making batches of your green walnut preserves and a couple pine mugolios- the mugolio I made last year from your recipe turned out great and has kept well in the fridge and I'm so looking forward to the green walnuts. I had a little less than a handful of dried sweet woodruff left from last year so I supplemented with a couple tablespoons of a homemade, on-the-weaker-side sweet woodruff vodka and I think it really adds something special to the syrup- I bet it will be even better after it ages.)
Thanks so much for sharing your hard work with the world!
Alan Bergo
Hi Heather, yes you can use the pits and skins to make fruit scrap vinegar. I'm actually doing it today with my chokecherry pits leftover from making the gastrique.
Heather
Oh right of course vinegar makes total sense, thank you! I've been meaning to try out vinegar making, especially after seeing your recipe and reading Pascal Baudar's book. Hopefully there are still some lingering black cherries so I can collect enough to give it a try this year!
I ended up needing to make the gastrique before I saw your response (it came out great, btw, love this recipe!) so I decided to try drying the mash/pits mixture to buy myself some time. I spread them out in the dehydrator the way you'd do fruit leather, at around 150F, and let it go about two days until it was cracker dry. I do some hobbyist skincare/haircare formulating so once I saw the color it occurred to me that I could probably extract it into glycerin and at least pull some of the color even if it doesn't retain any of the fruity or almondy scents. (I've gotten a beautiful, stable color in glycerin from dried elderberries and dried bilberries, so I figured this might be similar.)
I decided to grind the pits/mash and set up a little solvent experiment, trying out 100 gram batches of glycerin, propanediol (basically propylene glycol but derived from corn instead of petroleum), a bio-based butylene glycol, an equal parts mixture of those first three, and a 200 proof culinary solvent that I use for perfume bases, using 30 grams of the dried cherry mash in each. It's been about five days, and so far all of them have pulled a nice deep red-purple color. The 200 proof alcohol is pulling that characteristic almond scent nicely, while the other three are more faintly fruity. I usually let a glycerin or propanediol extraction go for at least a month so I'm going to let them all go a bit longer and see if I get more of the almond scent over time.
I use plum kernel oil a lot in my formulating and it has such a beautiful marzipan scent that comes through pleasantly in an emulsion even when it's heated and only used around 2%. (I've only ever seen cosmetic grade plum kernel oil but I would love to find a food grade or a foraged plum version. I can forage beach plums here in NYC but probably not in the kind of quantity I'd need to press my own oil, lol.) I'm hoping to layer those almond notes by combining plum kernel oil, the dried black cherry alcohol, and one or a mix of the black cherry extractions in an emulsion. I will report back if it works!
Thanks again for your feedback- I feel like you are so thoughtful about responding to your readers and I find a ton of helpful info in the comments section. I really appreciate it!
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks. It's fun to hear about the solubility in the 200 proof!
Shawn Hyer
Ok, I'm very familiar with gastrique, and this is a super sexy, very clean and simple one for all to enjoy. Thank you!! But I'm wondering how to take this flavor profile and turn it into a more of a glaze, like for a Choux pastry ?? Not a frosting mind you, but this wonderfully vibrant cherry / vinegar / color and flavor profile, as a slick sticky stable glaze for an eclair that is piped full of a light airy foie gras mousse? Any thoughts?
Love your site BTW!!!
Alan Bergo
Hi Shawn. So, some fruits will naturally set from their pectin, grapes and pin cherries have set using this recipe for me-that is one possibility. If yours doesn't set when it's chilled, you could add some leaf gelatin, heat just enough to melt it, cool and brush on as you would aspic for choux froid.
Jeanette Holder
I made this with goumi berries and it turned out wonderful. Next time I’ll just use less water and I used less sugar. I added Chinese 13 spice powder and black pepper and served it over tofu and a purslane and garden veggy stir. Next time I’ll try it with black bean balls. Thanks!
Debbie McCann
Delicious made with American Beautyberry.
Alan Bergo
Glad it worked for you Debbie.
Amy
Thank you so much for this lesson and wonderful sauce! Did with mainly rose hips with touch of cranberry and raspberry. Served with spruce mousse . Will definitely make again- nice to have a technique to use with awkward seedy wild fruits. Thanks!
Katie
I have a bunch of black currants in my freezer. Do you think I could make this gastritis with black currants?
Alan Bergo
Yes. Currants will work too. They're also very good made into Cassis.
Shlemby
I'm wondering if anyone has experimented using Dewberries which are closely related to Blackberries but more tart.
They grow wild here in Texas and I really want to make a Dewberry Gastrique for a lamb confit I'm preparing.
Alan Bergo
They will work just fine! Enjoy.
Linda
Can I replace any part of the vinegar with lemon or lime juice in this recipe? I intend to make this gastrique syrup using wild grapes only...
T
Alan Bergo
No. Fresh citrus has a variable pH and will not be as stable, it also gets bitter when cooked. If you want some citrus flavor (I would only use lemon or orange) add some zest to taste after cooking, and a splash of juice. The combination of vinegar and citrus together is really lovely.
Monica
I want to make this but first I want to know how and what to use it for once I do make it. I have never heard of a gastrique before reading your page. I have about 10 lbs of wild black cherries to try and figure out what to do with.
Alan Bergo
Use wherever you would use maple syrup. It's also good with game and poultry. Ice cream, all kinds of things.
Valeska Populoh
We have these incredibly, tiny, almost black wild grapes growing in the treetops of our local park. I love the results from your recipe and will be giving bottles of this delicious elixir to friends and family. Thank you!
Alan Bergo
Glad it worked for you!
Steve Coates
Alan, thanks! Excellent recipe. I used freshly picked wild black cherries. Was hesitant to use vinegar for a syrup, but I did decide use red wine vinegar and a tablespoon of lime juice. Glad I did. Vibrant, deep cherry flavor! Will make again next season.
Alan Bergo
Steve, glad it worked for you, and yes, it's one of my favorite fruit preserves-super versatile.
Kristin
So, I would love to try this with sour cherries but I want to can it. How long in a water bath? Does it change anything else?
Alan Bergo
Kristen, so this is an acidic recipe, it does not need to be water bath canned, but if you're more comfortable doing that, go for it. Just follow directions for water bath processing for pickles using whatever recommended times. 10 minutes for pints should be fine, longer for quarts. Personally I just pour it boiling hot into jars, screw on the lids, turn the jars upside down and allow them to cool, as for maple syrup. This is more stable than maple syrup though as it contains vinegar. After opening it needs to be refrigerated or it will ferment into vinegar.
Jennifer
Made this today with a huge grape harvest from my fence line. I made an Italian soda with it and it was amazing. We enjoyed making cocktails with it as well. Thanks for the recipe!
Alan Bergo
Glad it worked for you.
Susanne
I am thinking of trying Oregon grape next season. They are very tart all on their own. Would you still add the same ratio of vinegar?
Alan Bergo
I would still add the vinegar. Chokecherries are tart and tannic and I add it with them.
Naomi
Woweee this is good! Made it yesterday with grapes from my sisters backyard. I boiled it for too long because I forgot to consider the hot water bath to can it. So it was perfect and then I boiled in a canner for 20 more minutes. Oops. I guess now I have a sweet & sour cracker spread. ???? Excited to try this with chokecherries next year.
Alan Bergo
Trust me, happens to the best of us. Chokecherries, aronia berries, elderberries and wild grapes will be the best here.
Evie Mandel
Tried this with foraged Oregon grape, a must of home made apple cider vinegar and red wine vinegar, and some thyme from the garden. Used a bit less water and about 3/4 of the sugar. Amazing! Thank you!
Alan Bergo
Recipes are just a guideline. The sugar helps the viscosity but if you use the right fruit you can get some natural thickness from it. Glad you could get some inspiration from it.
Mary
So I can mix chokecherrys and elderberries together?
Alan Bergo
Oh you definitely can. But, the tart, tannic flavor of chokecherries is excellent here, and if you have lots of chokecherries, I'd consider making one just out of them since the red color is so vibrant. If you have a high powered blender, you might consider blitzing the chokecherries to release some of their almond aroma trapped in the stones (the amygdalin they contain is denatured by heat). Mix and match whatever you like, just don't use red grapes from the store like the one commenter in here, lol.
D awny
way waaaaay tooooooo sweet and took over an hour to thicken! too much liquid and way too much sugar. I used red grapes ... the caramel (only 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water) should be made and thickened first then the fruit and vinegar added and reduced so the fruit is not having to cook for hours.
Alan Bergo
Hi there, there's nothing wrong with this recipe. The problem is that you used red table grapes, which contain much more water and sugar. As it says in the title of the recipe, this is made for small, tart, WILD stone fruit or small fruit with seeds, like wild grapes, or wild cherries. If you want something made with red grapes from a grocery store you might try Martha Stewart or Rachel Ray.
Katie
Would sour cherries work for this? I have a sour cherry tree in my yard and still have some cherries in the freezer.
Alan Bergo
Yes they'll work fine.
Val
I started making this recipe over a year ago. Usually with aronia and elderberry. It is a staple around my kitchen now. I have used it as a drizzle on pawpaw cheesecake, in cocktails & sodas, on pancakes even across salads with lemon and olive oil. I have turned several friends on to the recipe who keep it in hand now also!