Golden Goose Berry Jam

I just made this – on a visit home – from the gooseberries in the garden. (Rcp# 0017)

Ingredients for ‘Golden Goose Berry Jam‘

• 1 kg preserving sugar 2:1 (raw cane sugar 98 %, pectin 2%)
• 7 tablespoons apple pulp
• 600 g red gooseberries
• 400 g banana (very ripe, 3 – 5 whole bananas, depending on size)
• 700 ml hot water (min. 65 °C)
• Pot with at least 5 liters of cooking space
• 6 – 8 jam jars (clean AND sterile, place jars on a wet cloth beforehand to prevent them from breaking from hot liquids)

Cooking Instructions for ‘Golden Goose Berry Jam‘

1. Clean the gooseberries (wash and cut of extensions at both ends) and put them in the jam cooking pot.
2. Pour hot water over them and let them stand for 1 – 2 hours until the berry skin is soft.
3. Add 2 1/2 pealed and roughly chopped bananas and blend everything together in the pot.
4. Add preserving sugar in small portions and stir gently until all sugar is resolved.
5. Cook the jam according to the package directions (usually 3 minutes ‘bubbling’), add the rest of the banana, cut into small pieces, then turn off and take the pot off the heat.
6. Put the hot jam into the jars:
   Caution, very hot!! Protect yourself and especially your hands from burning throughout the whole process and when handling hot pot and jam!
   1. Place the empty jars on a wet cloth
   2. Pour the hot jam into the glasses (use a sterile funnel or a sterile scoop)
   3. Fill the jars to the brim, then clean the brim carefully and place the lid on the jars.
   4. Immediately turn over to stand on lid.
   5. Leave like that for at least 10 minutes. Then rotate back and wipe the rest of the jars with a wet cloth to remove any excess jam.
7. Allow to cool completely and check that the lid is tight (just test carefully if the lid can be moved too easily, do not turn it all the way!) before storing in a cool and dark place (remember the safety precautions for all canned goods). Any jars with lids that are not completely closed must be refrigerated and used up immediately.

Frequently inspect stored jars for signs of decay and mold inside AND outside the jars. Carefully remove mold from the outside (wash the entire jar) and – if in doubt – open. Treat the opened jam jar as you would any jar that did not seal properly during the cooking process (see above).

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Side Notes:

• As you may have noticed, the above recipe does not require the addition of lemon juice, which is usually requested on the package of preserving sugar. Gooseberries are high in vitamin C, and the apple pulp as well as the overripe banana add thickening power.
• If you cannot get the right preserving sugar ‘2:1’ – which stands for the ratio of two units of fruit to one unit of sugar- you can mix 1 kg of raw canned sugar with 5 g of pectin or the equivalent amount of other (plant-based) gelling mixtures. These usually contain locust bean gum, agar-agar or guar gum.
• Should the red gooseberries not be available, use regular gooseberries – the riper and pinker the better – and add a big handful of black currants to the pot with the gooseberries from the start (small boxes at the farmer’s market of about 100-150 grams). Of course, the black currants need to be stripped of their little twigs and washed before they are added to the gooseberries.