Lingonberry

Airelle rouge

What it is

The berry carries enough benzoic acid to preserve itself: rårörda lingon, the Swedish standard, is nothing but raw berries and sugar stirred cold in a jar, and it keeps for months without ever seeing heat. The same acidity is why it is put next to fat — meatballs, liver, reindeer, game.

In the kitchen

Stir raw berries with half their weight in sugar until the sugar has dissolved, then jar them cold — no heat at any stage, or you have made jam and lost the bite. Cooked, they demand more sugar still and give back less.

Goes with

Venison Reindeer Juniper berry Cream Potato Black pudding Calf's liver Pork

Same species

Blueberry Cranberry Dried cranberry Wild bilberry

Also used with

Chaga Ptarmigan

In season alongside

Damson Cornelian cherry Gooseberry Jabuticaba Omija (schisandra berry) Physalis

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