Why it works: Gooseberry and sugar work together. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 131 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Gooseberry Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pulp
Press the gooseberries through a sieve to extract the juice for jelly, without draining them too closely.
Weigh the pulp and boil it for about 1 hour and 15 minutes until it forms a dry paste.
Make the paste
Stir in 1½ lbs of powdered sugar for each 4 lbs of fruit until nearly dissolved.
Boil the mixture for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring continuously to prevent burning.
Pour into molds or shallow pans and turn out when ready to serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Gooseberry + sugartop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together131 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gooseberry pulp
- Provides the fruit base and natural pectin that lets the paste set firm when cooked down.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the paste and, as it cooks, helps it thicken and hold its shape when cooled.
The step that matters
Stirring during the final boil. Once sugar is added the thick mixture scorches easily on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring spreads the heat and prevents burning, which would give the paste a bitter taste.
“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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