To Dry Rife Gooseberries with Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the syrup
Cut the tops off the gooseberries, leaving the stalks intact, and remove the seeds.
Boil the gooseberries in a syrup made with 1½ lbs of sugar and 1 pint of water until clear and tender, about 8 to 12 minutes.
Steep and dry
Place the gooseberries in cold syrup that has been used for other fruits, then heat gradually.
Keep the mixture at a boiling point for a few minutes before letting it sit for a couple of days.
On the third day, drain the syrup, simmer and skim it, then pour it over the gooseberries immediately.
After 48 hours, drain the gooseberries and lay them out singly on plates or dishes.
Place the dishes in a gentle oven to dry.
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 softened in syrup and then dried into a chewy, concentrated piece.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, as it soaks in, helps preserve it and gives it a glossy, sticky finish.
The step that matters
Heating the gooseberries gradually in the syrup. Heating gently and letting the fruit sit between boilings lets sugar slowly replace the water inside the fruit. Rushing the heat can split the skins and leave the fruit tough or uneven.
“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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