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Gooseberry Catsup (II)
Mrs. J. B. Adams, Mrs. Henry Stevens, and Mrs. R. Harris. Eight pounds of ripe or partially ripe fruit, four pounds brown sugar, one pint of good vinegar, two ounces each fine cloves and cinnamon tied in a bag; boil the berries and sugar for three or four hours, then add spice; boil a little more; put in a jar and cover well. Will keep two years by occasionally scalding and adding a little vinegar and spice,
A spiced sweet-sour fruit condiment of the old English school, closer to a chutney than to anything in a squeeze bottle. The method as printed leaves out one ingredient and overstates two others.
- The vinegar is never mentioned againThe pint of vinegar appears in the list and then vanishes from the instructions. Add it at the start with the berries and sugar; it is what makes the preserve keep and what balances four pounds of sugar.
- Scale it downEight pounds of fruit is a market-day quantity that will yield roughly six to eight pints. Quartering the recipe (2 lb gooseberries, 1 lb brown sugar, ½ cup vinegar, ½ oz each spice) is more realistic and cooks far faster.
- Three or four hours is a wood-stove figureOn a modern burner in a wide heavy pan, the fruit will break down and thicken in well under an hour for a small batch. Cook to a thick, jammy consistency that mounds on a spoon, and stir often near the end — the sugar scorches readily.
- Two ounces each of cloves and cinnamonThat is around half a cup of whole cloves by volume, and clove dominates everything it touches. Even at full scale, half that amount is plenty; use whole spices tied in cheesecloth as directed so they can be lifted out.
- Ripe or partially ripeUnderripe green gooseberries are sharper and much higher in pectin, so a mixed picking sets better and tastes brighter. Frozen gooseberries work perfectly well and need no thawing.
- Brown sugarNineteenth-century brown sugar was a less refined, moister product. Light brown sugar is the closest ordinary equivalent; dark brown gives a heavier molasses note that fights the fruit.
- Storage — ignore the two years"Put in a jar and cover well," then rescald and re-spice as needed, is open-kettle keeping and depends on a cool cellar and frequent attention. Refrigerate it and use within a few months, or process it by a current tested water-bath method rather than this one.
- ServingCatsup here means a condiment, not a sauce for chips. Serve it in spoonfuls with cold roast pork, ham, duck, game or a sharp cheese.
"Catsup" reaches English from a Southeast Asian word for a fermented brine sauce, generally traced to Hokkien kê-tsiap by way of Dutch and English traders, and for most of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it meant almost anything but tomato — mushroom, walnut, oyster, cucumber, currant, gooseberry. This gooseberry version belongs to the sweet-and-spiced branch, essentially a chutney under an English name, and it reflects both the imperial spice trade and the fact that gooseberries grow enthusiastically in cool Ontario gardens and glut the household all at once in early summer. The Home Cook Book (Toronto, 1877) was assembled from recipes contributed by named local women and sold in aid of charity, and this one carries three signatures.