The best way of preserving gooseberries is with jelly. They should
be full grown but green. Take six quarts of gooseberries, and select
three quarts of the largest and finest to preserve whole, reserving the
others for the jelly. Put the whole ones into a pan with sufficient
water to cover them, and simmer them slowly till they begin to be
tender; but do not keep them on the fire till they are likely to burst.
Take them out carefully with a perforated skimmer to drain the warm
water from them, and lay them directly in a pan of cold water. Put
those that you intend for the jelly into a stew-pan, allowing to each
quart of gooseberries half a pint of water. Boil them fast till they
go all to pieces, and stir and mash them with a spoon. Then put them
into a jelly-bag that has been first dipped in hot water, and squeeze
through it all the juice. Measure the juice, and to each pint allow a
pound and a half of loaf-sugar. Break up the sugar, and put it into a
preserving kettle; pour the juice over it, and let it stand to melt,
stirring it frequently. When it has all dissolved, set it over the
fire, put the gooseberries into it, and let them boil twenty minutes,
or till they are quite clear, and till the jelly is thick and congeals
in the spoon when you hold it in the air. If the gooseberries seem
likely to break, take them out carefully, and let the jelly boil by
itself till it is finished. When all is done, put up the gooseberries
and the jelly together in glass jars.
Strawberries, raspberries, grapes, currants or any small fruit may in a
similar manner be preserved in jelly.
TO STEW GOOSEBERRIES.--Top and tail them. Pour some boiling water on
the gooseberries, cover them up, and let them set about half an hour,
or till the skin is quite tender, but not till it bursts, as that will
make the juice run out into the water. Then pour off the water, and
mix with the gooseberries an equal quantity of sugar. Put them into
a porcelain stew-pan or skillet, and set it on hot coals, or on a
charcoal furnace. In a few minutes you may begin to mash them against
the side of the pan with a wooden spoon. Let them stew about half an
hour, stirring them frequently. They must be quite cold before they are
used for any thing.
GOOSEBERRY FOOL.--Having stewed two quarts of gooseberries in the above
manner, stir them as soon as they are cold into a quart of rich boiling
milk. Grate in a nutmeg, and covering the pan, let the gooseberries
simmer in the milk for five minutes. Then stir in the beaten yolks of
two or three eggs, and immediately remove it from the fire. Keep on the
cover a few minutes longer; then turn out the mixture into a deep dish
or a glass bowl, and set it away to get cold, before it goes to table.
Eat it with sponge-cake. It will probably require additional sugar,
stirred in at the last.
Gooseberries prepared in this manner make a very good pudding, with the
addition of a little grated bread. Use both whites and yolks of the
eggs. Stir the mixture well, and bake it in a deep dish. Eat it cold,
with sugar grated over it.
TO BOTTLE GOOSEBERRIES.--For this purpose the gooseberries must be
large and full grown, but quite green. Top and tail them, and put them
into wide-mouthed bottles as far up as the beginning of the neck. Cover
the bottom of a large boiler or kettle with saw-dust or straw. Stand
the bottles of gooseberries (slightly corked) upright in the boiler,
and pour round them cold water to each, as far up as the fruit. Put a
brisk fire under the boiler, and when the water boils up, instantly
take out the bottles and fill them up to the mouth with boiling water,
which you must have ready in a tea-kettle. Cork them again slightly,
and when quite cold put in the corks very tight and seal them. Lay the
bottles on their sides in a box of dry sand, and turn them every day
for four or five weeks. If properly managed, the gooseberries will keep
a year, and may be used at any time, by stewing them with sugar.
You may bottle damsons in the same manner; also grapes.