Another summer jam recipe. We raided the neighbours garden again, this time for gooseberries (I forgot to wear long sleeves so my arms are scratched to bits,wont make that mistake again) .
We picked 25lbs of berries from 1 bush . How fantastic was that!. 
My jam recipe is the same for both blackcurrants and gooseberries, You can also use this recipe to make jam of Josta berries and other hybrids of gooseberries and blackcurrants. Make sure to use cooking gooseberries not sweet dessert gooseberries.
Gooseberries and Blackcurrants are both high in pectin and dont need setting agents such as lemon. We add quite a bit of water to the jam to so the individual berries float in jelly in the pot . Many poeple dont add enough water and then the jam has a verychewy dense texture. Dont use overripe fruit as it wont set well and makes a poor jam. Use any overripe fruit to make cordials,liquers, syrups or puddings.
Gooseberry Jam
4lb Gooseberries
3pt water
6lb sugar
Cook the berries in the water untill the berries pop and the skin of a berry smooshes (nice technical term that) between your fingers and disintegrates. Adding suger to jam toughens the fruit so if you dont cook them untill they are this soft the skins toughen and the jam is chewy.
Add the sugar and boil for about 20- 30 minutes until a teaspoonfull of jam wrinkles on a plate .
Dont worry if the color of the jam changes from green to pink .This is normal but it doesnt always happen so dont worry if it doesnt.
pour into jars and lid
As simple as that
(see rhubarb jam recipe post for more details on lidding etc.)
Do you use ordinary sugar or Jam Sugar?
I’m making gooseberry jam as this moment in time. I have just boiled it for 15 minutes and its quite green. I will boil it for longer and see what happens. Thank you. I prefer it to go rfed/ping