Gooseberry Jam

With 18 pounds of gooseberries in the freezer, I decided it was time to do something with them. And as I love gooseberry jam, that was top of the list.
It's not the first time I've made gooseberry jam, but it's been a while, so I looked up various recipes to check ingredients and time etc. There was a lot of variation in the amount of water to use, one website saying 150ml of water per kilo of gooseberries, another saying 600ml. I decided not to worry too much: it's easy enough to add more water while it's cooking or to let it cook longer, depending on how runny it looks in the pan.

I'm useless at metric measurements, so did some rough conversions as follows. As 1 kilo is about 2.2lb, and I was using 4lb of gooseberries, I decided it was close enough to say 2 kilos. Therefore I needed somewhere between 300ml and 1200ml of water. There are 568ml to 1 pint. Therefore 300ml is just over half a pint and 1200 ml is just over 2 pints. I chose to split the difference and use about 1.5 pints of water.

The last batch of gooseberry jam was a bit thick and a bit sweet - the taste of gooseberries seemed to be a bit lost in the sugar - so this time I decided to reduce the sugar a little bit.

The recipe I used is therefore:

4lbs gooseberries
3.5lbs granulated sugar
1.5 pints water
Makes 5.5 normal size jam jars

I started by putting empty jam jars in the dishwasher to sterilise them and warm them up. When the dishwasher had finished (while I was cooking the jam), I put the jars into the oven on gas mark 1 to keep them hot - we don't want jam jars to explode when we put the jam in!

I topped and tailed the gooseberries. This is easiest done when the gooseberries are frozen - the stalk and the bottom bit scrape off very easily with a finger nail, and you don't squish the gooseberries all over the place either!

I put them in the cooking pot with the water and turned on to a normal cooking heat. I let them bubble away for an hour or so, stirring occasionally to help the gooseberries break down. This was a normal boil, not a rolling boil - no need for the rolling boil at this stage.

When the skins have really softened up and broken down, it's time to add the sugar. Apparently, once the sugar is added, the gooseberry skins won't soften or break down any more. Turn the gas down first and add the sugar, stirring well to make sure it all disolves.

Then it's time to turn the gas up again. I didn't bother with a really high rolling boil, just a very-slightly-higher-than-normal boil. I kept that going for another 10 minutes or so while some small plates were chilling in the freezer. Every few minutes after that, I put a small blob of jam onto a chilled plate, waited 30 seconds and tested for a wrinkle. As soon as I got a wrinkle, I turned the gas off.

Then I ladelled the whole lot into the jars and put the lids on while still hot and left them to cool.

Verdict: Lovely jam! Got a good set without having to boil the living shit out of it. Got a lovely taste using slightly less sugar than in other recipes. Friends and neighbours have had 3 jars already. Looks like I'll have to make some more pretty soon ....

Rhubarb & Ginger Jam

Having sorted the chest freezer out, decided it was time to crack on and use up some of the fruit. Rhubarb and ginger jam sounded good to me!

2lb rhubarb, chopped

2lb sugar

juice of 2 lemons

40g ginger

Makes 3 jars.

OK, so I've mixed Imperial and metric measurements. I'm useless with metric measurements. We found some frozen ginger in Sainsburys, and it's conveniently squished into 20g blocks, so used two of those, and it's easier to simply use the known metric weights than try and convert them.

Anyway, to make the jam, we put the chopped rhubarb and the sugar into a bowl and left it overnight for the rhubarb juices to absorb the sugar. All the recipes we looked at said to do this, but some for 2 hours, some for 24 hours. I decided overnight was enough, and gave it a stir before bed. I gave it another stir first thing in the morning, by which time, the rhubarb was in a lovely sugary syrup.

I then put some jam jars in the dishwasher and when that finished, put them in the oven at gas mark 1 to keep them hot - putting hot jam into a cold jam jar isn't a good idea (apparently!).

I then put the jam on the heat, bringing it to a boil. I added the ginger and lemon juice while it was heating up. I haven't yet found out how much juice is in one lemon, so I just poured a few tablespoons of Jif lemon juice in.

After about 20 minutes, I tested if it had reached the setting point by dropping a small blob of jam onto a cold saucer and testing if it wrinkled when pushed. It didn't seem to wrinkle easily, so kept the jam on the gas a bit longer. I tested again, but still wasn't sure, so I took a chance and stopped the boiling, and poured the jam into the hot jam jars and put the lids on.

When it had cooled down, I tried the jam - it was a bit too thick, but ok. Maybe too much lemon juice? It wasn't as gingery as I'd hoped for, so might double the ginger next time.

Loganberry Jam

The gooseberry jam didn't last long, so I made some loganberry jam last night.

3 pounds of loganberries made 5 jars of jam

Put all the loganberries in a big pan, no water, mash a few with a wooden spoon, boil for about 20 mins - the loganberries break down in their own juice
Turn the heat down, add 3 pounds of sugar, stir in well to ensure all the sugar is disolved properly
Bring to boil for another 20 mins and test for set with a cold plate - if it isn't ready, boil a bit more and keep testing
When it's ready, pour into hot, sterilised jam jars

I used ordinary jam jars, the same as those we get from the supermarkets - I washed them in the dishwasher before storing with lids on
To sterlise them, I poured boiling water in them and rinsed them out
I then put the jars in the oven on the lowest setting to warm them up - pouring hot jam in a cold jar could break the jar
I used the ordinary jam jar lids, sterilised in boiling water - as the lids have the smooth waxy coating underneath, no need for wax discs or any messing about - as the jam cools, the pop-up safety button should pop down

The jam is very good but it's a bit runnier than I'd like. That might be because it wasn't boiled enough or didn't reach a high enough temperature. Or it could be that it didn't have enough pectin to cause a set. Next time I'll add a spoonful of lemon juice to help the set.

Rain at last!

We've just had a week of badly needed rain. As I really only have potatoes, onions and sweetcorn on the allotment, and they only need watering, I haven't been up there for a week. However, I will go up there this week and pick all the redcurrants and gooseberries.

Fruit at home is doing well. I've picked about a pound of raspberries or loganberries per day from the garden - I have several pounds of each in the freezer, ready for making jam. The gooseberry jam at home has gone. I'll be making some more this week, along with either raspberry jam or loganberry jam.

The rhubarb crowns I split seem to be doing well. 3 of the crowns in the ground have new shoots, along with the one in the bucket. The other 3 are showing no signs of life at the moment. The big old crown in the old rhubarb bed is still doing well - it looks like that needs splitting into 3 crowns this winter.

I've picked some of the small Iceberg lettuces at home. Not sure if they were Mini Green or Little Gem, but they were good.

The seeds I sowed just over a week ago are doing fine - loads of seedlings showing, especially PSB. Hopefully will have time to build a frame and set up some netting for them this time. I'd rather feed me than the pigeons!