Green Gooseberries, Wet
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gooseberries
Scald the gooseberries over the fire without boiling them.
Let the gooseberries stand in a tub for three days.
Drain the liquid from the gooseberries.
Syrup and soak
Place the drained gooseberries in another pan with water and a little syrup.
Heat the mixture until warm, but do not boil.
The next day, strain the liquid again.
Place the gooseberries in an earthen pan.
Pour boiling hot thin syrup over the gooseberries.
Repeat this process once a day for six days, gradually thickening the syrup.
Finally, transfer the gooseberries into pots.
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 that is softened and preserved in the syrup.
- Syrup
- Sweetens the fruit and, as it thickens over days, preserves it and gives it body.
The step that matters
Do not boil the gooseberries when scalding or warming them. Boiling breaks down the fruit's skin and flesh, so the berries turn mushy and lose their shape. Gentle heat softens them while keeping them whole for the later syrup soaks.
“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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