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Dessert

Gooseberry Sweetmeats

Gooseberries stewed with sugar and preserved in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Gooseberry Sweetmeats

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the flower remnants from the gooseberries and wash them.

  2. Weigh the gooseberries and measure out an equal amount of granulated sugar.

Make the sweetmeats

  1. Place the gooseberries in a pot over low heat and let them stew until the skins are tender, shaking the pot occasionally.

  2. Add the sugar and stir until it is completely dissolved without boiling.

  3. While the mixture is still very hot, fill cans and screw the covers on tightly.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Gooseberries
Provide the fruit base, with their skins softening during gentle stewing to give body and structure.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, dissolved into it, thickens the mixture and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Dissolving the sugar without boiling. Sugar must dissolve fully before the mixture boils, since boiling undissolved sugar can cause crystals to form and make the texture grainy. Gentle heat keeps the fruit intact while the sugar goes into solution.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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