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Dessert

Gooseberries

Preserved gooseberries in clarified sugar syrup, finished with brandy.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gooseberries

  1. Pick off the black eyes from the gooseberries, leaving the stalks intact.

  2. Scald the gooseberries in water over the fire without boiling them.

  3. Once tender, transfer them to cold water.

Make the syrup

  1. In a pot, combine 1 pint of water with 1.5 pounds of sugar and heat until the sugar is clarified.

  2. When the syrup is cold, add the gooseberries one by one into the preserving pan with the syrup.

  3. Set on a gentle fire and boil until the sugar has absorbed into the gooseberries without breaking them.

  4. Remove from heat, cover with thick paper, and let sit overnight.

Finish and cover

  1. The next day, take the gooseberries from the syrup and boil the syrup until it thickens.

  2. Skim the syrup, pour it back over the gooseberries, and simmer until thick.

  3. Once cooled, cover the gooseberries with brandy paper.

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
Form the fruit body, holding their shape through scalding and slow syrup soaking.
Sugar
Sweetens and, as syrup, preserves the fruit by drawing out water and absorbing into it.
Water
Dissolves the sugar to make the syrup and gently cooks the fruit during scalding.

The step that matters

Boil the gooseberries gently in the syrup. A rolling boil can split the skins and break the fruit apart. A gentle simmer lets sugar slowly replace the water in the fruit, keeping the berries whole and clear.

“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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