How to Make Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Pick ten pounds of ripe gooseberries.
Put them in a covered pot with a pint of water.
Set the pot on the fire to boil to a pulp, stirring frequently.
Make the jam
When they are thoroughly dissolved, add six pounds of sugar.
Stir the mixture continuously while boiling until the jam is reduced to a rather stiff paste.
Pot and seal
Pour the jam into gallipots.
When cold, cover with paper and tie round with 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. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Gooseberries
- Provide the fruit body and natural pectin that help the jam set as it reduces.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, as it concentrates, helps preserve it and firm it into a paste.
The step that matters
Stirring while the jam reduces. Once the sugar is added, the mixture can scorch on the bottom of the pot and burn. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly and lets the jam thicken into a stiff paste without sticking or darkening.
“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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