raditionally, honored guests in a Serbian home are greeted with a spoonful of “slatko”--a type of fruit preserve. This family recipe comes from Jagoda Radivojevic, passed down from her grandmother. It’s very easy to make and you can use almost any kind of fruit.

Favorites types of slatko are wild strawberry, blueberry, plum, and cherry. Slatko, which means “sweet” in Serbian, is less thick than jam.

You probably won’t be greeting guests with a spoonful of slatko, but it’s ideal as a topping for ice cream, pancakes, shortcakes, and waffles.

Basic Slatko (strawberry)

100 centiliters water (about 2/3 cup)

1 kilo sugar (2.2 pounds)

1 kilo whole strawberries (2.2 pounds)

1/3 teaspoon citric acid (or juice of one lemon)

tart with equal amounts of ripe, fresh fruit and sugar. Small, uniform berries are best. Dissolve 1/3 teaspoon of citric acid in a bowl of water and soak the strawberries for one hour. Discard water.

In a deep cooking pot, bring water and sugar to boil at very low heat. Continue to boil until sugar is dissolved and forms syrup. Add drained fruit to hot mixture. Boil at high heat for 5 minutes. With a long wooden spoon, remove foam that forms on top. Reduce heat to low and continue to boil for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and cover pan with a wet towel. Allow to cool, preferably overnight.

If you don’t have any citric acid around, you can skip that and just add the juice of a whole lemon before removing from the final cooking.

Slatko should be syrupy, thicker than pancake syrup, with large pieces of fruit.

Storage

our into sterilized glass canning jars and seal tightly. Store refrigerated. Properly made and properly stored, slatko keeps for several months.

Variants

nstead of strawberries, try raspberries, apricots (skinned, cut in halves or quarters, but not smaller), peaches, blueberries, blackberries, red currants, or whole, slightly unripe plums (skinned). If you make plum slatko, add some walnut halves to the mixture. You can use frozen berries and fruit also, but adjust the amount of water and cooking time accordingly.

The trick to making slatko is adjust the amount of sugar to compensate for the sweetness of the fruit you’re using. Sweeter fruit, less sugar.