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Preserved Gooseberries

Preserved gooseberries are boiled with water and sugar, then jarred and sealed with paraffin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Preserved Gooseberries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Stone the gooseberries and place them in a kettle with enough water to cover.

  2. Boil slowly until the gooseberries are tender.

  3. Remove from water and peel off the outer skins.

  4. Weigh the fruit and measure out an equal quantity of sugar.

Cook and seal

  1. Add the sugar and fruit back to the cooking water and boil until the fruit is clear.

  2. Pour into sterilized jars and, when cool, cover with paraffin.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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 body and pectin-rich structure that sets the preserve as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and helps preserve it while drawing it to a clear, thick texture.

The step that matters

Boil until the fruit is clear. Sugar must dissolve fully and the fruit must cook until translucent; undercooking leaves the preserve runny and prone to spoiling, while overcooking can make it stiff or dark.

“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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