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Dessert

Cape Gooseberry Jam

A jam made from gooseberries, sugar, and cold water, boiled until it jells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Cape Gooseberry Jam

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prick the gooseberries with a needle.

  2. Layer the berries and sugar in a preserving pan.

Cook

  1. Add the cold water and boil gently.

  2. Test the syrup by pouring a little on a cold plate; it should jelly quickly.

Pot and store

  1. Pour the jam into pots, cover immediately, and store in a dry place.

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, pectin and tartness that form the base of the jam.
Preserving sugar
Sweetens the fruit and helps the jam set and keep well.
Cold water
Starts the fruit softening and dissolves the sugar as the mixture heats.

The step that matters

Testing the set on a cold plate. Jam sets as its pectin and sugar concentrate during boiling. A cold-plate test shows whether the syrup will gel, so the jam is not overcooked or left runny.

“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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