Apicius 1.22 Berries in Syrup

This recipe is actually for preserving blackberries, but it sounded like something that could work as a dessert or sweet dish on its own. The Latin:

XXII. MORA VT DIV DVRENT: ex moribus sucum facito et cum sapa misce et in uitrio uaso cum moram mitte; custodies multo tempore.

And the English:

1.22. How to preserve blackberries:* make a purée from some blackberries and mix it with syrup and put it in a glass vessel with (some more) blackberries. You will keep them for a long time.

*Or possibly mulberries. [Authors' note.]

I didn't have any blackberries, but I have a back yard full of these things called wineberries. They're originally from eastern Asia (Korea I think), not Rome (and not my back yard either), but they are obviously in the blackberry/raspberry family. They're ripe when a deep burgundy color (hence the name) and have these weird sticky sepal things that open up to reveal the berry. The berries are a bit sticky too, but they are quite good. They're probably closer in taste to raspberries than blackberries, but I figured they'd still work with this recipe.

So I went out there and picked a bunch, a little less than a cup. I could have picked more, but I was in a skirt and sandals which is not exactly the right outfit for tromping through brambles, so I just got what I could reach.

I washed them off then took half of them and squished them with a fork to make the purée, then strained it through a sieve into a bowl, because who needs more raspberry seeds in their life? Not me. I then added the syrup (the caroenum I made last week) and poured it over the berries. Here's the entire (very simple) recipe:

1 cup raspberries/blackberries
1/4 cup caroenum

Take half the berries and mash with a fork; strain through a sieve into a bowl, then mix with the caroenum and pour over the berries.

It was actually a lot sweeter than I was counting on and I think in the future I would use proportionally less caroenum. It probably was a bit much for the small amount of berries I had; also wineberries are probably sweeter than blackberries anyway. If you were doing it to preserve them (as per the original recipe) then you'd probably want them floating in there a bit, true. As a (totally non-period) note though: the caroenum + wineberry juice mixture would go real nice in some seltzer water as a summertime drink.

I think this is probably a keeper with a bit of adjusting; I'd like to try it with some proper blackberries next time.