When I was in grade school in the 1960s, we visited our grandparents every summer and they grew gooseberries. We picked and ate green gooseberries right off the bushes. They were certainly sour, but that was the attraction.  We had contests to see how many we could eat before having to spit them out. We never did get to see them as red berries. They must have ripened in late summer or early fall after we went back home.  I don’t hear of gooseberries much anymore, but they’re mentioned in a lot of old cookbooks.

INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

STEWED GOOSEBERRIES
Young green gooseberries stewed, strange to say, require less sugar than ripe gooseberries. It is best to stew the fruit first, and add the sugar afterwards. The amount of sugar varies very much with the quality of the gooseberries.

GREEN GOOSEBERRY TART
Top and tail* the gooseberries. Put into a porcelain kettle with enough water to prevent burning and stew slowly until they break. Take them off, sweeten well, and set aside to cool. When cold, pour into pastry shells and bake with a top crust of puff-paste. Brush all over with beaten egg while hot, set back in the oven to glaze for three minutes. Eat cold.

*top and tail – to cut off the hard parts at each end before you prepare it for cooking.

COMPOTE OF GOOSEBERRIES
Choose a quart of large, sound, ripe, gooseberries. Remove the stems and tops, then throw the berries into boiling water for two minutes. Drain, let them lay three minutes in cold water containing a tablespoon of vinegar to restore their color, and then drain again until quite dry.

Meantime, make a thick syrup by boiling one pound of sugar with one pint of water, As soon as the syrup has boiled about ten minutes, put in the gooseberries and boil them gently until just tender, about ten minutes. Then pour both fruit and syrup into an earthen or glass dish, cool, and use.

GOOSEBERRY CHEESE
Remove the tops and stalks from two quarts of ripe, red gooseberries. Put them in a moderate oven* till soft enough to rub through a sieve. Then add to them one-fourth their weight of sugar. Set them over the fire to boil gently for half an hour, stirring them constantly and skimming till clear. Then put by the tablespoon on plates and dry in the mouth of a cool oven. Pack, when quite cool, in a tight box between sheets of white wrapping paper.

*moderate oven – about 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit.

GOOSEBERRY FOOL
Remove tops and stalks from two quarts of gooseberries. Boil them with three quarters of their weight in sugar and one-half pint of cold water until soft enough to pulp through a sieve. Then mix the pulp with a pint of milk, or cream, if a more expensive dish is desired, and put into an earthen or glass dish to cool. Serve cold.

GOOSEBERRY JAM
Press the juice from three oranges and shave off the rind, being careful not to get any of the white part. Remove blossoms and stems from five pounds of gooseberries, seed* two pounds of raisins, and chop all together very fine. Add three–fourths of a pound of sugar and the orange juice, and cook slowly for an hour. Pour into jars or tumblers and when cold, spread a layer of powdered sugar on top of the glass and seal.

*seed – seedless grapes and raisins were not available in the 1800s.

GOOSEBERRY PUDDING
Stew one pint ripe or nearly ripe gooseberries ten minutes—very slowly, so as not to break them. Cut six or eight slices stale bread with crusts removed to fit your pudding-dish, and toast to a light brown on both sides.  Dip each slice, while hot, in milk and spread with melted butter. Cover the bottom of the dish with them, put a layer of the gooseberries sprinkled thickly with sugar, more toast, more berries, and so on, until the dish is full. Cover closely and steam in a moderate oven twenty or twenty-five minutes. Turn out upon a hot dish and sift powdered sugar over the top. This is considered a wholesome breakfast dish.

AN EASTERN PUDDING
Make a paste of a pound of flour and one-half pound of minced suet.* Roll it out thin into a square or oblong sheet and trim off the edges so as to make it an even shape. Spread thickly over it some marmalade or cold stewed gooseberries, (which must be made very sweet). Roll up the paste with the fruit spread on it, into a scroll. Secure each end by putting on nicely a thin round piece of paste left over from the trimmings. Put the pudding into a cloth and boil it at least three hours. Serve it up hot and eat it with cream sauce, or with butter and sugar.

*suet – the hard white fat on the kidneys and loins of cattle, sheep, and other animals.

PRESERVED GOOSEBERRIES
In dry weather, pick some full grown but unripe gooseberries, top and tail them, and put them into wide-mouthed bottles. Stop them lightly with new velvet corks, put them into the oven after the bread has been baked, and let them stand till they are shrunk one fourth. Take them out of the oven, fasten the corks in tight, cut off the tops, and rosin them down close. Set them in a dry place, and if well secured from the air, they will keep the year round. Currants and damsons may be preserved in the same way.

photo credit green gooseberries

photo credit ripe gooseberries

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The Alaska Wild Berry Cookbook: Homestyle Recipes from the Far North

Mouth-watering recipes include classic desserts, such as blueberry-lemon pie and strawberry mousse, to more unique ones, such as salmonberry cake, but there are also sections for berry-made breads, salads, meat dishes and marinades, preserves, candies, mincemeats, and even beverages. Also included are easy substitutions for berry lovers everywhere, foragers and grocery store shoppers alike, to customize and enjoy the dishes wherever they may live. From lowbush cranberry marmalade to raspberry cake to crowberry syrup, this classic berry cookbook covers it all.

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Have You Ever Eaten Gooseberries? Please Leave a Comment Below.

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