Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick off stalks and buds from the gooseberries.
Bruise the gooseberries lightly.
Cook the jam
Boil the gooseberries quickly for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the pounded and sifted sugar to the fruit.
Boil quickly, removing scum as it rises.
Pot and store
Once cold, transfer to pots and cover.
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
- Red gooseberries
- Provide the fruit and natural pectin that help the jam thicken and set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, with boiling, helps it set and keeps it from spoiling.
The step that matters
Boil quickly after adding the sugar. The sugar must dissolve fully into the fruit before a brisk boil. Pectin and sugar set together only at high concentration, so a weak or slow boil can leave the jam runny, while overcooking can darken and dull its flavour.
“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.
More gooseberry jam recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.