Red Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Pick and place the red gooseberries in a preserving pan with 1 pint of water for every half bushel of fruit.
Stir on the fire until the gooseberries dissolve.
Rub the mixture through a cane sieve into a large white pan.
Make the jam
Boil the sugar with just enough water to dissolve it until it reaches the pearl stage.
Add the pulp to the sugar and stir continuously until it thickens enough to hang in drops from a spoon.
Pot the jam
Pour the jam into pots and cover with circular pieces of paper dipped in brandy, tying them down with paper and string.
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 body, flavor and natural pectin that helps the jam set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, once concentrated by cooking, helps the jam thicken and keep.
The step that matters
Stirring the pulp into the sugar. Continuous stirring keeps the thick sugar mixture from scorching on the base of the pan. As water evaporates, the sugar concentrates and the jam thickens, so the spoon test for drops hanging from the spoon is the cue to stop cooking.
“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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