Simple recipes for gooseberry jelly for winter

With the onset of the summer season, the hot season of conservation begins for all housewives.Various pickles and jams, fruit platter and compotes - all vegetables and fruits are used. Thick berry jam with lots of sugar is already a familiar guest on any table, both in autumn and in winter. However, sometimes you want to pamper your loved ones with something more light and unusual. In this case, come to the aid of desserts in the form of jelly. They have a softer and delicate flavor, and in addition, an unusual light structure. Especially refreshing such a dessert is not made from sweet cherries or tart plums, but from sour gooseberries. You can make a classic green berry jelly, or you can supplement and transform its taste with various spices and other fruits.

Cooking gooseberry jelly is not complicated and does not take a very long time, but somewhat different from ordinary recipes. The thing is that because of the content of pectin in the gooseberry pulp, it itself represents a kind of gelatinous mass. Therefore, when harvesting fragrant fruit for long-term storage, you should follow some rules.

• Ripe berries themselves are quite sweet, so do not require large amounts of sugar. On the contrary, the green immature gooseberry will give the finished jelly quite strong sourness, and if this taste is not to your liking, you will have to add more sugar. Over-grown soft berries are not suitable for making jelly, it is better to leave them for cooking compote or jam.
• The aroma of gooseberry itself is quite weak, and after heat treatment may disappear altogether. To prevent this, you must add any fruit acid. It can be obtained from citrus fruits, from sour apples or with the help of kiwi pulp.

• Most often, when cooking classic jams, they do not use strong spices, since the taste and aroma remains quite saturated. Jelly opens up more space for experimentation, you can mix the fruits of the shrub with vanilla extract, flavor them with mint or sprinkle with cardamom. Fans of cloves and ginger will also appreciate the possibility of using these products when cooking gooseberry jelly.

• Cooking jelly mass of berries is always carried out in several stages, alternating heating and cooling. As a result of this process, the volume of the finished product is several times smaller than the initial raw material, and this must be taken into account. Being engaged in such preservation for the first time, you just have to stock up on glass containers of various capacities. After the recipe is tested, it will already be possible to guess how many jars or plates it will need in the next preparation.
• Thick foam that appears on the surface of the boiling mixture can ruin the taste of even the freshest berries, so it must be removed promptly with a skimmer or a regular spoon. Jelly should be cooked on low heat, so that the sugar does not stick to the bottom of the saucepan, and the moisture does not evaporate too quickly.

The multistage process itself is quite voluminous, but simple. Peeled and chopped berries are poured with water and covered with sugar. In some cases, pre-boiled sweet syrup is used. A thick mass is boiled over low heat 2-4 times, allowing to cool and again adding the flame of the stove. After that, the finished jelly is poured into pre-sterilized jars and left to cool and thicken. In some varieties of gooseberry pectin may be more, while in others less. If during massing the mass does not thicken, you will have to add a small amount of gelatin purchased at the grocery store.

Each housewife has her own criteria for selecting the right fruits for conservation. Someone prefers green and sourish berries, someone likes black or red small gooseberries. In fact, the grade is almost irrelevant in the manufacture of homemade jelly. The only thing that can affect it is a high or low content of natural pectin.The main thing when choosing berries is their ripeness and integrity.

For conservation will require ripe, but not overripe fruits of the shrub. They should be smooth, without dents and muddy film. The berries grown on their own site, it is best to collect in warm dry weather, tearing them from the branch without a stem and excess garbage. Fruits purchased on the market or in the store, you must carefully bust, clean from debris and peduncles. Dry whisk is best cut with small scissors, so as not to damage the delicate skin of the berries. The berries are thoroughly washed with cool running water and laid out on a clean towel in order to drain excess water from them. Rinse and dry the gooseberries should be very careful not to crumple and crush it.

In the classic recipe for gooseberry jelly there are no additional ingredients. Enough only ripe red berries and a small amount of sugar.

Composition:

• 1 kg of ripe berries;
• 0.8 kg of white sugar (if green variety of gooseberries is used, the sugar is increased to 1 kg);
• 0.8 l of purified filtered water.

Enumerated, washed and dried berries are poured into a large saucepan or enamel dish, pour water and bring to a boil. As soon as the first bubbles appear, the gas must be reduced to a minimum and the berries should be boiled for about 20 minutes. Hot broth is cooled to room temperature and filtered through a fine sieve or thick gauze, depending on the desired consistency. In order for the jelly to be homogeneous and transparent, only juice is sufficient; for a denser and more heterogeneous mass, berry pulp is also required. In some cases, even whole gooseberry fruits are put into the finished jelly, both as decoration and to enhance the taste of the finished dish.

The resulting liquid or thick mass is again poured into the pan and heated to boiling. Gradually injected sugar, well stirring the semi-finished jelly. Thick berry syrup is cooked so much time that the mass is boiled twice. According to the consistency of the mixture is still quite liquid, to a jelly-like state, it will harden in the banks. A slightly cooled but still hot mass is poured into previously sterilized jars, rolled up and left to cool in an inverted state. After complete cooling of the banks are removed in the pantry or cellar.

In some cases, natural pectin in the gooseberry itself may not be enough. In this case, you can use the recipes that involve the use of additional thickener. Such jelly can be prepared with gelatin, agar-agar or gelfix. Unlike the first substance of animal origin, agar-agar and zhelfiks are prepared exclusively from plant components.

For cooking you will need:

• 1 kg of ripe gooseberry;
• 0.25 l of purified water;
• 100 g of gelatin;
• 0.5 kg of sugar (or more, depending on individual preferences).

First of all, thick sugar syrup is brewed into which the berries themselves are laid, mashed them, or gooseberry juice is poured. A lot of heat over low heat for 25-30 minutes, then allowed to cool in the same saucepan. Gelatin is soaked in cool water, and after swelling it is poured into the cooled berry mixture and thoroughly stirred. Bring the mass to a boil and, not allowing it to cool, packaged in pre-sterilized jars. Banks wrapped and left to cool upside down, and then removed for storage.

Sometimes you want to make jelly, there is a container, a berry and all the equipment, but there is a catastrophic lack of time. In this case, you can use one of the popular recipes for the preparation of gooseberry quencher without long cooking. In addition, with such preparation, a maximum of useful vitamins and minerals will remain, which the berries lose as a result of repeated heat treatment.

For one of the easiest and most popular recipes you will need:

• 1 kg of ripe gooseberry;
• from 1 to 1.2 kg of white sugar (depending on the variety of berries);
• 0.5 liters of purified water.

Washed and peeled gooseberry berries sprinkled with sugar are laid in layers in a deep stewpan or saucepan. The mixture is filled with water and left in this form for a day. After that, the mass is put on a slow fire, brought to a boil and removed from the stove. Semi-prepared jelly again left in a dark dry place for a day. The procedure is repeated daily for one week, but daily it takes no more than 5-10 minutes, so the heating procedure can be carried out even during work charges. Already closer to the middle of the week pectin will start to stand out from the gooseberry, and the mass will begin to thicken. After the seventh heating, the jelly is transferred to the sterilized container, twisted, turned upside down and sent under the blanket to cool.

Not really jelly in its classic sense, but jelly-like jam can be obtained from gooseberry, twisted through a meat grinder. For this you need only:

• 1 kg of ripe berries;
• 1 kg of sugar.

Peeled and washed berries are lightly dried on a towel and scrolled in a meat grinder. You can also use a juicer, then the mixture will be more homogeneous, without stones and skins, but more liquid. The twisted mass is filled with sugar and put on high heat until boiling. The boiled jam is cooked for about 5 minutes and immediately poured into the prepared container. During boiling, it is important to constantly stir the mass and remove all the foams formed. Twisted cans are put on the cover and wrapped with a veil or towel for a longer and gradual cooling. Cooled jam jelly is stored in the fridge or on the balcony.

One of the most successful combinations is considered to be the sour taste of gooseberry with sweet orange. Fragrant and sweet citrus gives a wonderful first impression of the dessert, and the sour notes of gooseberry leave a pleasant aftertaste. For cooking you will need:

• 1 kg of gooseberry berries;
• 2 large oranges;
• 1.2 kg of white sugar.

Gooseberries are cleaned, washed thoroughly and dried on a towel. Whole and washed oranges are laid out in a deep pan, covered with water and boiled for a couple of minutes. This is done so that the fruit gives as much juice and flavor as possible, and at the same time the bitterness of fresh zest leaves it. Warm citruses are cut and released from the bones, after which, without removing the peel, they are twisted together with the berries through a meat grinder. Instead of a meat grinder, you can use a blender or food processor, but the juicer in this case will not work, because the recipe requires fruit pulp, not just their juice. Fruit puree is mixed with sugar and cooked over high heat for 10 minutes, after which it is poured into containers. Twisted jars put upside down under a blanket or towel and allowed to cool. The finished dessert is stored in a dark, dry and cool place.

Unlike fresh jelly, which is stored in the refrigerator for about 2-3 days, pasteurized jars can preserve the freshness of the dessert for up to 1-1.5 years. The main thing is to follow certain rules of conservation, sterilization and storage.

• All dishes in which gooseberry jelly is stored, cooked and preserved should be thoroughly washed. Banks in which ready dessert is poured, and covers should be sterilized.
• The cooled jelly is stored in a dark, dry and cool place. At the same time negative temperatures are not allowed. The optimal conditions is the range from 0 to +14 degrees.Direct sunlight on the glass and the lid of the swirling jar is unacceptable. When storing the blanks on the balcony, it is necessary to build a small closed shelving unit, put the jars in large boxes or cover them with a thick cloth.

• In order to save the jelly for a longer period of time, you can use a special apparatus, which sucks air out of the jar during seaming and creates a vacuum inside. Unfortunately, such a device is not cheap, so not everyone can buy it. A more economical option would be to use extra wax paper covers. The circles cut by ordinary scissors, the size of which coincides with the inner diameter of the can, are stacked on the surface of the jelly poured into the container. This should be done either on an even hotter, or on an already cold jelly, so as not to create temperature drops and not accumulate droplets of moisture under the paper. From above, such a container is closed with a nylon or metal lid and stored for storage.

Thus, in the preparation of a light jelly dessert from fresh gooseberry berries there are no particular difficulties or tricks. All that is required is to choose a recipe, be patient and begin culinary experiments. A sweet dessert with a light sourish aftertaste will become a favorite dish both on a festive table and during evening evening family tea parties on long winter evenings.

To learn how to make gooseberry jelly, see the next video.