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Gooseberry Jam (INGREDIENTS To every lb)
INGREDIENTS. - To every lb. of fruit allow lb. of loaf sugar; currant-juice. AVERAGE Cost per lb. pot, 6d.
Select red hairy gooseberries; have them gathered in dry weather, when quite ripe, without being too soft. Weigh them; with a pair of scissors cut off the tops and tails, and to every 6 lbs. of fruit have ready 1/2 pint of red-currant juice, drawn as for jelly.
GOOSEBERRIES.
Put the gooseberries and currant-juice into a preserving-pan, let them boil tolerably quickly, keeping them well stirred; when they begin to break, add to them the sugar, and keep simmering until the jam becomes firm, carefully skimming and stirring it, that it does not burn at the bottom. It should be boiled rather a long time, or it will not keep. Put it into pots (not too large), let it get perfectly cold, then cover the pots down with oiled and egged papers.
TIME. About 1 hour to boil the gooseberries in the currant-juice, from to hour with the sugar.
SEASONABLE. Make this in June or July.
A high-sugar, high-pectin preserve of the old school, stiffened by red-currant juice rather than by added pectin. The method is sound; only the vessels and the covering need bringing up to date.
- The sugar quantityThe ingredient line has lost its fraction, so the proportion of sugar to fruit cannot be read with certainty from this text. Beeton's other gooseberry preserves generally run at three-quarters of a pound of sugar to each pound of fruit, and that ratio behaves correctly here; treat it as a reconstruction rather than the author's figure.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone, prized because it threw less scum. Ordinary granulated white sugar is the direct equivalent, weight for weight.
- Currant juice is the setting agentCurrant juice reinforces the set -- Half a pint of red-currant juice to every 6 lb of fruit adds pectin and acid to help the set, and gives the jam its colour. Draw it as for jelly: heat the currants gently with a splash of water until they collapse, then strain through a jelly bag without pressing.
- Preserving-panAny wide, heavy pan with a large surface area will do; wide is more important than deep, since evaporation is what concentrates the jam. Avoid unlined copper or bare aluminium with this much fruit acid.
- How long to boilThe stated hour for the fruit and currant juice is generous by modern standards; gooseberries collapse in 15-25 minutes. Once the sugar is in, work to the set rather than the clock: a sugar thermometer at 220F/104C, or a spoonful chilled on a cold saucer that wrinkles when pushed.
- "Boiled rather a long time, or it will not keep"Long boiling was how the sugar was concentrated far enough to preserve the jam, in the absence of any way to measure it. With a thermometer you get the same keeping quality without the scorched, caramelised flavour that overboiling brings, so stir attentively at the base of the pan and stop at setting point.
- Covering the potsOiled and egged papers were pasted over the jar mouth to exclude air and mould spores. Use hot, sterilised jars with new two-piece or lug lids, filled to within a quarter inch of the rim and sealed while hot, which the original method cannot match for reliability.
- Fruit selectionRed hairy gooseberries were among the varieties grown for eating as well as cooking; any red or dark gooseberry works. The recipe asks for fruit gathered quite ripe but not soft, since over-soft fruit has lost acid and firmness.
Gooseberries were a British obsession in the nineteenth century, with gooseberry clubs in the industrial north competing to grow the heaviest single berry, and dozens of named varieties in the nurseries. Mrs Beeton's household books treat the fruit as an everyday June and July staple for tarts, fools, sauce for mackerel and, as here, jam. The addition of red-currant juice is the practical trick of the period: gooseberries alone can set weakly and cook to a dull greenish-brown, while currant juice supplies both extra pectin and a clear red colour, at a time when no bottled pectin existed and setting depended entirely on choosing the right fruit at the right moment. The instruction to gather the fruit in dry weather reflects the same logic, since rain-swollen berries carry more water to boil away and keep less well.