To Dry Ripe Gooseberries with Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Remove the seeds from the gooseberries.
Make the syrup and soak
Boil the gooseberries in a syrup made from 1½ lbs sugar and 1 pint water until clear and tender, about 8 to 12 minutes.
After boiling, place the gooseberries in cold syrup that has been used for other fruits.
Gradually heat the mixture to just below boiling for a few minutes.
Let the gooseberries sit in the syrup for a couple of days.
Dry
Drain the syrup.
Simmer the syrup.
Skim off any foam.
Pour the syrup over the gooseberries immediately.
Drain the gooseberries.
Lay the gooseberries out on plates or dishes.
Place the plates in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) 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
- The main fruit; boiling and soaking make it tender and let it take up sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, as a thick syrup, draws out water so the fruit dries and keeps.
The step that matters
Keep the oven gentle. High heat cooks the outside of the fruit and seals in moisture, so it dries unevenly. A low, gentle oven slowly drives off water and dries the gooseberries through.
“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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