Gooseberries

thriftlady_2

Ted_Hutchinson wrote:

Try putting a couple of heads of elderflower in with the goosegogs while you cook them, this adds a lovely wine aroma.

I can vouch for this-delicious.

If you've got an ice cream maker you can freeze a gooseberry fool mixture and make fabulous ice cream.

Chip_Butty_3

Thanks everyone for the advise. I did a Google search for Gooseberry Jam & got side tracked, as you do & ended up making ...... Gooseberry Chutney.

Here is the recipe - 1Kg Gooseberries
2 Medium Onions
300g Sultarners or Currants
1 tablespoon Salt
1 litre Malt Vinegar
500g Demerera Sugar
2 Tblespoons of Ground Ginger
1 Tespoon Mustard Seeds

I substituted the Demerera Sugar for Light Brown Sugar
The same with the Vinegar. I used up some Pickling Vinegar, some vinegar left over once the pickles & beetroot have been eaten & some Malt Vinegar.

Got about 7 small pots & 4 larger pots of Chutney out of 1.75 Kg

Got the recipe from Waitrose.com

newleaf

...Twelve lovely pounds of them! Crumble, Fool, Jam, any other ideas? I'll be freezing most of them, I think, because....there are also two large Blackcurrant bushes groaning under the weght of their load (probably about twelve pounds of those too), so it will be Blackcurrant Jam tomorrow - and anything else? My Jam pan can only cope with about 6 - 8lbs of fruit at a time, so there will be plenty left.

black-saturn

Intead of adding loads of sugar to get the sourness away try boiling them in diet lemonade.

twink

that sounds a great idea black-saturn, do you need to add any sugar at all or is it sweet enough?

thriftlady_2

Gooseberries are great for jam as they are high in pectin.Yesterday I made a dozen jars of gooseberry and raspberry jam.Gooseberries were free from my Mum and had been in my freezer for a couple of weeks.I bought the rasps from a farmshop(3 1/2 lb for £14:eek: -would have been much cheaper to PYO)

3lbs gooseberries
3 lbs raspberries
6 lbs sugar
1 pint of water

Put goosegogs in large pan (preserving pan ideally) with the water and cook gently for about 20 mins.
Add the rasps,and cook for a few more mins until all fruit is soft.
Add sugar and stir to dissolve.
Bring to a rolling boil and boil steadily for 15 mins.
Test a drop of jam on a cold saucer,if it wrinkles its ready.Boil again for another 5 mins until it reaches setting point(wrinkle stage).

Pot into warm,dry,sterilised jars.Sterilise them by washing in soapy water,rinsing and drying out in the oven at 100 degrees for about 20 mins.

You could easily replace the rasps with an equal quantity of gooseberries.And of course as the proportions are so straightforward you can reduce quantities.

Try cooking the goosegogs with some elderflowers(if there are still some about)tied in a handkerchief or muslin square.I wish I'd thought of doing that;)

black-saturn

twink wrote:

that sounds a great idea black-saturn, do you need to add any sugar at all or is it sweet enough?

Depends on how much of a sweet tooth you have but I don't usually add any extra sugar.

Ted_Hutchinson

Although Gooseberries do freeze well and keep a couple of years without problems, they do take up freezer space and you still have to do something with them before you eat them.

I've bottled my spare ones this year. I used a method similar to This description but I didn't bother with kilner jars, (I'm short of glass disks if anyone knows where to find them) I re-used saved jars from Lidl's preserved peppers. (they are delicous) and some which had previously contained olives.

They seem to have sealed fine and they certainly look ok. One advantage of bottling is that the fruit is already cooked, so all you need to do to eat them is tip them out of the jar but they could go just as easily into a pie or crumble, and you don't have to defrost them. It's also handy to have some bottled fruit around as it makes a nice present as does gooseberry jam.
If you've still got some elderflowers around a few heads in when you prepare your jam really gives a muscat flavour.

kittiwoz

Gooseberries are good with mackrel.

newleaf

kittiwoz wrote:

Gooseberries are good with mackrel.

Really? I suppose the acidity would be good with the oiliness. How would you serve them, on the side? Thanks, I never would have thought of that - and Mackerel is cheap too.