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Dessert

Gooseberries, Bottled

Preserved gooseberries stored in bottles with hay or straw and boiled water.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gooseberries

  1. Remove the stems and tails from the gooseberries.

  2. Place the gooseberries into wide-necked glass bottles.

  3. Wrap a little hay or straw around each bottle.

Heat in the pot

  1. Put a thin layer of hay or straw in the bottom of a large pot.

  2. Stand the bottles on top of the hay in the pot.

  3. Surround the bottles with cold water up to three-quarters of their depth.

  4. Slowly bring the water to a boil.

  5. Remove the pot from the heat.

  6. Leave the bottles in the hot water until the gooseberries begin to rise.

  7. Add a little boiling water to each bottle.

Seal and store

  1. Cork the bottles with new corks.

  2. Cover the bottles with bladder.

  3. Store the bottles on their sides in a cool, dry place.

  4. When using the fruit, add sugar or syrup to taste.

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 that is preserved and later sweetened to taste.
Hay or straw
Cushions and insulates the bottles so they heat gently in the water bath.

The step that matters

Leave the bottles in the hot water until the gooseberries begin to rise. Heating the fruit gently drives air out of the tissue so the bottle is filled with fruit and liquid, which helps keep it from spoiling. Stopping too early leaves air pockets, and heating too hard can break the fruit apart.

“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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