Making Gooseberry Jam

Here's how to make gooseberry jam with fresh Ontario gooseberries. (All photos by Niamh Malcolm.) First, process your jars as described in my post on making raspberry jam. For every pound of gooseberries, you'll need 1¼ pounds of sugar and 175 mL (¾ cup) of water. I used 3 pounds of fruit, which is a nice, manageable amount. It gave me 3½ pints of jam.

Wash the gooseberries and remove the little stems and woody tufts from tops and tails. In a preserving pan (or any biggish pot with a thick bottom), bring the berries and water to a boil. Then simmer about half an hour, until the mixture resembles pea soup (the berries in the upper picture still have a long way to go).

Take the pot off the stove and add the sugar. Stir it all in, trying to avoid pouring sugar down the inside edges of the pan.

Then return the fruit and sugar mixture to the heat and boil it rapidly, stirring occasionally and making sure it doesn't burn. You'll know it's ready to pour into sterilized jars when until the liquid thickens and turns glassy on top, when it runs thickly off your spoon, and when it gels solid if you drop it on a saucer that you've chilled in the freezer. This can take 15 to 30 minutes, depending on many variables.

The colour will have changed by this time from greenish to a pinkish gold, and the texture will be jellylike rather than sludgy and pea-soupy. Use a funnel to fill the jars, leaving some head room (air space at the top of each jar). Be careful not to scrape the gel from the edges of the pot back into the mixture, for complicated reasons having to do with the chemical formation of sugars.

Finally, process the filled jars as in the recipe for raspberry jam.

I like the taste as is, but if you'd like to experiment, it might be nice to add a peeled and bruised knob of ginger to the boiling jam for some extra flavour. Enjoy!