15.5.11

"Spoonful preserves"/του κουταλιού

Melon and melon peel in clear syrup.
For many centuries sweet fruit and vegetable preserves are a traditional welcome treat for visitors in Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East,the Balkans and even Russia.
In Greece it was always a delicious way to fill the cupboards with jars of fruits and have them through the winter. The difference from marmalade is that in preserves fruits are either whole or in large pieces "swimming" in clear sugar syrup, not mashed.
Strawberries and other soft fleshed fruits are not preferred for preserve. It takes special skill to make a strawberry preserve and keep each fruit whole and crunchy.

Young green figs as "spoonful sweets".
It is really rare to find a Greek woman who doesn't know how to make what we call ""spoonful sweets". 
I have to confess I am one of the very rare exceptions *lowers her head in shame*
I've never had the courage to peel and prepare and boil and reboil the fruits in large pots and make the syrup and what if it doesn't thicken properly?,then reboil it the next day... (cba tbh)



King of sweet preserves, orange peels...wait!!Janet!Come back!! ;P
Everything can be made into a sweet preserve. Most beloved are orange and lemon -peels included-bergamot peel,unripened figs,cherries,watermelon peels,grapes and quince. There are also some rare ones like tomato,eggplant,lemon blossoms,unripened nuts,unripened chestnuts even olives (never tried it but I know it exists)



Up till today,most Greek housewives have some jars with preserves,either handmade by them or by mother/aunt/cousin to serve an unexpected visitor.(when the visitor is expected,they cook for days ahead ofc!) Traditionally,the preserves are served on a nice tray-preferably silver-with a white lace or linen. In the middle there is a crystal bowl with the preserve and all around small silver spoons and small glass plates.
The lady of the house goes around to each visitor,he/she takes a spoonful of the preserve in their plate.Of course there should be lots of nice really cool water and strong coffee ,which the Turks call Turkish coffee,Greeks call it Greek coffee and which is originally ARABIC coffee (and who cares, as long as it is aromatic and delicious :])


10 comments:

  1. *Janet calls from a safe distance* "What pretty pictures! Such lovely looking preserves!" :D

    I liked reading about the tradition of serving these to guests on silver plates topped with lace. It sounds very European/British! I was never raised with any sort of formal eating arrangements like that, so it's fun to read about.

    My mom used to make jam, jelly and preserves every summer, and in fact, my father still has a few jars of her amazing blackberry, strawberry and elderberry jam boxed away, each with her custom calligraphy labels to identify the contents.

    By the way, Steve is prepared to be a guest in your home, so that you might serve him all of the preserves that you own, as well as your friends across the street, and your neighbors too! I am prepared to run with polite but urgent screams away from any spoonful offered in my direction, but you would be certain to hear my hastily retreating calls of, "Thank you very much!"

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  2. Lol
    To be honest 'spoonful preserves" are very often too sweet for my tastes.I love the grape one and the orange-sometimes I nimble some rose petal preserve too!!
    For me there is only one Emperor/God/Uber Commander of Sweets:Black Chocolate!!!! All others come second,or rather third :]
    Steve can have all the sweet preserves of Greece, me and you will raid my favorite chocolate chef's store ;))

    PS We 're still waiting for Moosie to arrive...the cat's can't wait to get their paws on him ;P

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  3. I would agree that eating preserves by themselves would be too sweet for me too. I enjoy putting jam and jelly on toast or sometimes on graham crackers!

    Black Chocolate? WHAT'S THAT! *scampers over to Google to do a search*

    Oh! You have a chocolate museum in Athens! http://www.cycladia.com/blog/events/a-chocolate-museum-in-athens
    It looks as if it were just a special event, not something that is available all the time, but maybe I'm wrong? Bitter chocolate is wonderful in small pieces! I prefer milk chocolate but enjoy bitter chocolate as a nice change.

    By the way, Steve is a chocolate hound! So your plan will not work! He will eat all of the preserves in your neighborhood and then he will chase us down so he can get in front of us to get all of the chocolate before we get any! :D

    LOL, we would be very happy to drop Moosie off at any time! However, you will not be too happy when you find out he has dead-animal breath all of the time AND unless he is bathed often, he smells like dirty socks. Also, he is so dumb that he will sometimes just stand in the middle of the room, staring at a blank wall! No, no, I would not wish him on you! He is, however, one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met and doesn't have a mean bone in his body. Such a warm-hearted, friendly boy! We have always wished that he lived with a family of young children because he would be in heaven with little kids hanging all over him and the parents would always be able to trust him with the little ones!

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  4. In Serbia we also have this kind of tradition except we use different kind of fruits: quince, peel plum, strawberry, variety of cherries, white watermelon etc. The very best one is from wild [forest] strawberry - those strawberries are like half centimeter in diameter - very small but way much more tasteful than any other domestic strawberry - this very one is usually made to be very dense almost like marmalade and its very hard to make due the need to mesh it all the time while fruits are boiling in the syrup and they are very hard to pick in large amounts.

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  5. Strawberry preserve FTW!!!!!!
    And sour cherry too!!!!

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  6. You should try white sweet cherry... yum yum

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  7. Ακόμη περιμένω την αφαίρεση της φωτογραφίας που μου κλέψατε. Αλλά έτσι φαίνεται έχετε μάθει να "δουλεύετε" στην ζωή σας με την δουλειά και την εργασία των άλλων.

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  8. Μολις μου πειτε -παρακαλώ ,οχι ανωνύμως-ακριβως ποια φωτογραφια σας "εκλεψα",ευχαριστως να την "κατεβάσω".

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