This year’s crop of gooseberries has been ever so slightly better than last year’s. We have a gooseberry bush in our back garden and another on our allotment, however both bushes seem to be afflicted by American gooseberry mildew. According to the RHS website, the fruit is still edible, each berry just needs to be given a good rubbing down and a wash – and the bushes need a good prune. It’s a good thing we didn’t have a bumper harvest then!
I went to my trusty vintage Cordon Bleu Preserving book to find some recipes that called for under-ripe (because, in all honesty, that’s what they were!) gooseberries. I found recipes for gooseberry jelly with elderflower, gooseberry jam, gooseberry ketchup, gooseberry pickle and gooseberry relish. The pickle recipe was the only one that specifically mentioned unripe berries.
The recipe in my book required 2 pints of gooseberries – a very strange measurement to use – I guess you just fill up a couple of pint glasses! I worked it out as being 2 pints = 1kg. I only managed a paltry 500g of gooseberries, so I’ve halved the recipe quantities here. The recipe also included cayenne pepper, but we didn’t have any to hand, so I substituted it with an equal quantity of paprika. Once made, the pickle needs to be jarred up and stored away for a good six months. I reckon it would serve as a great accompaniment to fish or cheese board – I’ll report back my findings in December!
Gooseberry pickle
Ingredients
- 500 g/1 pint gooseberries
- 115 g/4oz demerara sugar
- salt the book doesn't specify quantities so I added 5g/⅕oz
- 570 ml/1 pint white wine vinegar
- 7 g/¼oz mustard seeds
- 85 g/3oz garlic
- 170 g/6oz raisins
- 7 g/¼oz ground paprika
Instructions
- Clean, top and tail the gooseberries and put them in a pan with the sugar, salt and half of the white wine vinegar
- Stir over a gentle heat until the sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil and cook until the gooseberries are tender
- In a large heatproof bowl, bruise the mustard seeds, chop & crush the garlic and mix both with the raisins and paprika
- Pour the boiling gooseberries over the mixture and add the other half of the cold vinegar
- Stir before decanting into sterilised Kilner jars
- Immediately screw down the jars and store for at least 6 months before use
I’ve seen lots of nice looking greeny / darkish red gooseberries here (only saw green ones in England), and wondered whether to make jam (got lots from various other fruits) so this is great – gonna try it. Will report back too in Dec! A long time to wait, huh!
I’m hoping that ‘good things come to those who wait’ – it may be a revelation!
I found ‘Indian gooseberry’ pickle recipes – using a completely different fruit that I’ve never seen before.