Gooseberry Jam

Two ingredients. That’s it. Gooseberries and sugar.

This is jam-making stripped down to its purest form. Fresh gooseberries are naturally loaded with pectin, so you don’t need to add a single packet. Just cook them low and slow with sugar until the juice sheets off a spoon in that telltale sign that the jam has set.

The flavor lands somewhere between tart green grape and kiwi, with a floral sweetness that’s completely its own thing.

If you’ve got a gooseberry bush in the garden or stumble across a pint at the farmers’ market, this is the recipe you want.

Kitchen Tips

• Stem and wash carefully. Gooseberries have tiny thorns at the stem end. Snip them off with small scissors for the quickest cleanup.
• Heat very slowly at the start with the lid on. The berries need to release their juice before you crank up the heat. Rushing this step scorches the sugar.
• Test the set by dripping jam from a spoon. When it falls in a sheet rather than individual drops, it’s ready to pull off the heat.