Stewed Gooseberries
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gooseberries
Pick over the gooseberries.
Remove tops and stems from the gooseberries.
Boil the gooseberries in fast-boiling water for 2 minutes.
Drain the gooseberries.
Soak the gooseberries in cold water for 2 minutes.
Drain the gooseberries again.
Make the syrup and stew
Combine sugar and cold water in a pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Skim off any scum from the boiling mixture.
Add the gooseberries to the syrup.
Stew the gooseberries until tender, but do not let them break.
Remove the gooseberries from the syrup.
Set and serve
Place the gooseberries in a glass or china dish.
Boil the syrup until it slightly jellies on a cooled saucer.
Pour the jellied syrup over the gooseberries.
Serve the dish cold.
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
- Form the fruit body of the dish, holding their shape when stewed gently in syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, boiled to a set, forms the jellied syrup that coats them.
The step that matters
Stewing the gooseberries without breaking them. Simmering gently keeps the fruit's skins and cell walls intact; rapid boiling softens and bursts the berries, turning the dish to mush and clouding the syrup.
“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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