History Cookbook: Apricot and Honey Conserve

Healthiness : (120 votes)

Difficulty:  
Comments: The Saxons and Vikings would have mashed everything by hand - this is quite time consuming. Today we can use a food processor which makes it very quick and easy to make.
Preparation Time: 15 minutes de-stoning apricots, 2 minutes in a processor.
Cooking Time: None
Number of servings: This made about 4 jars
Serving suggestions: Serve on toast, with a pudding or with yoghurt.
This is a vegan recipe

Before sugar was available, honey was used both as a sweetener and as a preserve. Fermented honey made an alcoholic drink called mead. We used white grape juice in our conserve. However, the alcohol is the main reason that the apricots don't go off, so I kept my conserve in the fridge and used it within a couple of weeks. It was delicious and we had it on toast, ice cream and with a custard tart.

• 225g (8oz) honey
• 225g (8oz) apricots
• 4 tsps pressed crab apple juice or lemon juice. (This is to add sharpness. The Anglo-Saxons would have used crab apple juice, you can use lemon juice.)
• 1/2 tsp of sweet cecily seed (If you cannot get this, use cinnamon. It is a good substitute and may have been availabe to the Anglo-Saxons, as it was brought from the east and traded across Europe from very early times.)
• 2 tbs mead or white grape juice. (Note: this won't keep well without the mead.)

• Sterilised jam jars
• Knife
• Masher or food processor
• Weighing scales

Always wash your hands before preparing food.

1. Destone the apricots and cut in slices
2. Slightly mash apricots by hand or use a food processor 
3. Add the other ingredients and mash or puree all ingredients together
4. Pour into sterilised (heated) jars or pots and cover well 

There are 5 comments for this recipe.
Add a comment

Name: Tegan Ferbrache	14th October 2019
It looks disgusting

Name: HistoryFanatic	10th January 2019
OMG this is sooooooooooooo good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Name: Chocy12345	8th October 2014
this is not very good

View all comments, or Add a comment