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To Dry Green Gooseberries

A method for drying green gooseberries by boiling, simmering, and drying them in a cool oven or sunny window.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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To Dry Green Gooseberries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gooseberries

  1. Take the finest green gooseberries, fully grown and freshly gathered; cut off the buds, split them across the tops halfway down, and with the small end of a tea or egg spoon, scoop out the seeds.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. Boil together for fifteen minutes a pound and a half of the finest sugar and a pint of water.

  2. Skim this syrup thoroughly and throw into it a pound of the seeded gooseberries.

  3. Simmer them from five to seven minutes, until they are clear and tender.

  4. When they are so, lift them out, and throw as many more into the syrup.

Dry and store

  1. Drain them a little when done, spread them singly on dishes, and dry them very gradually in a quite cool stove or oven, or in a sunny window.

  2. Store them in syrup or dry them when needed.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 (in the method)
Provide the fruit that becomes tender and clear, and is dried into a chewy preserve.
Sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the fruit and, as a thick syrup, preserves it and helps it keep its shape.

The step that matters

Drying very gradually at low heat. Gentle, slow drying in a cool oven or sunny window removes moisture evenly. High heat would harden the outside into a crust and trap moisture inside, so the fruit could spoil.

“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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