Gooseberry Jam, White or Yellow
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Choose ripe gooseberries gathered on a dry day.
Remove the tops and stalks.
Make the jam
In a preserving pan, combine the sugar and water.
Boil for 10 minutes.
Add the gooseberries to the boiling syrup.
Simmer gently until cooked.
To check if done, place a little syrup on a plate; if it jellies, it's ready.
Jar
Pour the jam into jars.
Cover with brandied or oiled paper and tissue paper dipped in gum-water or unbeaten egg white.
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, flavour and pectin-bearing body that gives the jam its substance.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, with boiling, helps it thicken and set and keep well.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar into a syrup so the fruit can cook evenly.
The step that matters
Testing for set. Sugar and fruit pectin only gel at the right concentration, so jam cooked too little stays runny and cooked too long can turn stiff. A cold plate test shows when the syrup will jelly as it cools.
“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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