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Compote of Gooseberries

A sweet compote made from gooseberries simmered in a sugar‑vinegar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Compote of Gooseberries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Remove stems and tops from gooseberries.

  2. Boil gooseberries in water for 2 minutes, then drain.

  3. Soak gooseberries in cold water with vinegar for 3 minutes, then drain again.

Make the compote

  1. In a pot, combine sugar and water to make a thick syrup, boiling for about 10 minutes.

  2. Add gooseberries to syrup and boil gently for about 10 minutes until tender.

Serve

  1. Pour fruit and syrup into a dish, cool, and serve.

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gooseberries
Main fruit; cooking in syrup softens the flesh until tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, dissolved in water, forms the thick syrup that coats it.
Vinegar
Adds a touch of sharpness that balances the sweet syrup.

The step that matters

Simmer the gooseberries gently in the syrup. Vigorous boiling bursts the delicate skins and breaks the fruit apart. A gentle simmer lets the gooseberries soften while they stay whole and hold their shape in 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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