Name: Red Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients: 6 pounds small ripe red gooseberries; 2 ½ pounds roughly powdered sugar (or 3 pounds fine Lisbon sugar for common preserve)

Red Gooseberry Jam

Ingredients

6 pounds small ripe red gooseberries
2 ½ pounds roughly powdered sugar (or 3 pounds fine Lisbon sugar for common preserve)

Directions

Prepare

Remove the buds and stalks from the gooseberries.

Cook the jam

Weigh the gooseberries and boil them quickly for 45 minutes, stirring well.
Add the sugar and boil briskly for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring from the bottom to prevent burning.

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, along with natural pectin and acid that help the jam set.
Sugar: Sweetens the jam, thickens the syrup, and helps it set and keep.

The step that matters

Stirring from the bottom while boiling with sugar. Once sugar is added, the mixture thickens and concentrates, and sugar on the bottom of the pan scorches easily. Stirring from the bottom keeps the jam moving, prevents burning and sticking, and lets the jam reach the concentration needed to set.

“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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Red Gooseberry Jam