Using Hawthorn Berries in Ketchups and Leathers

By Foraging for Sweet Chestnuts in Autumn Woods
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4 Jul 2026

Using Hawthorn Berries in Ketchups and Leathers

A Hedgerow Harvest Worth the Effort

Hawthorn is the backbone of the British countryside. In May it froths with cream blossom, and by late September the same bushes hang heavy with scarlet haws. Most of us walk straight past them. That is a real shame, because the haw makes one of the most useful preserves in the autumn larder: tart, deeply coloured, and endlessly adaptable.

The common hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, is the one you want. Look for a thorny shrub or small tree with deeply lobed leaves and clusters of round red berries, each roughly the size of a small pea and carrying a single hard stone. There is also the Midland hawthorn, which carries two or three stones per berry and has shallower leaf lobes. Both are perfectly good eating, so do not fret about which you have found.

Do be careful not to muddle haws with rosehips, which are longer and more oval, or with anything growing on a conifer. If it has needles, leave it alone. A good squeeze test helps too: ripe haws give slightly under the thumb and have a small, star-shaped scar where the flower once sat.

Picking and Preparing Your Berries

Haws are ready from late August, though I find they are at their best from late September through to November. Slightly underripe berries carry more pectin, which is a bonus if you plan to make ketchup or jelly. Pick whole clusters and drop them gently into a bag, because bruised berries go brown quickly.

Stay away from busy roadside verges, and avoid hedges that may have been flailed or sprayed. Nobody wants a ketchup with a side of exhaust fumes. And please leave plenty behind: haws are a vital winter food for redwings, fieldfares and waxwings, so take a share and no more.

At home, strip the berries from their stalks, rinse well, and pick out any leaves and twigs. Simmer them in a pan with just enough water to cover for 20 to 30 minutes, until the skins split and the fruit collapses. Then rub everything through a mouli-légumes, or push it through a sieve with the back of a spoon, discarding the skins and stones.

Never blend hawthorn and leave the stones in. They are extremely hard and taste bitter.
Expect a yield of roughly half. One kilogram of berries gives about 500g of sieved pulp.
Freeze the pulp in 500g portions if you do not want to cook everything at once.

Hawthorn Ketchup

This is the preserve I make most often, and the one that converts sceptics. It has the tang of a good brown sauce with a fruitiness all of its own, and it is superb with sausages, venison, cold roast pork or a wedge of mature Cheddar.

500g hawthorn pulp
1 onion, finely chopped
250ml cider vinegar
100g soft light brown sugar
1 tsp fine salt
Spice bag: 4 cloves, 1 tsp allspice berries, 1 tsp black peppercorns, a thumbnail of fresh ginger, 1 star anise

Soften the onion in a little oil, then add the pulp, vinegar, sugar, salt and the tied spice bag. Simmer gently for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring often so it does not catch, until the mixture is thick and glossy. Fish out the spice bag, blitz the ketchup smooth, then return it to the pan and cook until a spoon drawn through leaves a clean channel. Pour into sterilised bottles while hot and seal.

Hawthorn Fruit Leather

Haws alone can be a little dry in texture, so I always pair them with apple. The result is a chewy, sweet-sour strip that disappears from lunchboxes at an alarming rate.

400g hawthorn pulp
200g stewed apple, or two or three crab apples cooked down
100–150g sugar or honey, to taste
A good squeeze of lemon juice

Warm everything together until the sugar dissolves, then taste. It should sit firmly on the tart side of sweet. Spread the purée 3–4mm thick onto baking parchment on a flat tray. Dry it in an oven at 60–70°C with the door slightly ajar, or in a dehydrator at 55–60°C, for four to eight hours. It is ready when the surface is no longer tacky and the sheet peels cleanly away from the paper. Cut into strips, roll them in parchment, and keep in an airtight tin.

Flavour Pairings and Variations

Hawthorn tastes tart and faintly appley, with a floral note that some people describe as almond-like. That makes it wonderfully friendly to spice.

Barbecue ketchup: add a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a little extra sugar.
Deeper colour: stir a handful of blackberries into the pan with the pulp.
Grown-up finish: add a splash of port once the ketchup comes off the heat.
Nutty leather: fold chopped hazelnuts or a pinch of cinnamon into the purée before drying.
Beyond ketchup: haws also make a fine jelly with crab apples, a firm fruit cheese for a cheeseboard, and a warming country liqueur.

Storing, Labelling and Sharing

Sterilise your bottles and jars properly: wash them, then stand them in a low oven at 140°C for fifteen minutes, or fill them with boiling water and drain. The ketchup will keep for around six months unopened in a cool, dark cupboard, and for a month in the fridge once opened. The leather keeps for about three months in an airtight tin, or freezes well for longer.

Always label with the date and what is inside, because a brown bottle of homemade ketchup is almost indistinguishable from a brown bottle of something else. Then give some away. Hawthorn ketchup is one of the best ambassadors for hedgerow cookery there is: familiar enough to be reassuring, strange enough to start a conversation, and made from fruit that most people never even notice.

Preserves

Creating a Wild Food Garden in Small Spaces

Follow best practice for mushroom foraging: take a basket, cut cleanly, avoid protected sites and never eat a species unless fully certain.

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5 Comments

Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply
- John Abraham says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
  
  I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
  Reply
  - Robert Sonnysays Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
    
    I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
    Reply
Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply

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