Gooseberries are one of the most popular fruit and berry crops among Russian gardeners, growing most often in temperate climates. Gooseberry jam with various nuts is no worse in taste than strawberry or raspberry jam. It’s easy to prepare, you just need to follow the recommendations. To make jam, slightly unripe berries are collected and ripe peeled nuts are added.
Subtleties of cooking
Gooseberry jam with nuts has always been highly valued, because its preparation has long been considered too troublesome. To get a tasty and healthy product, you need to follow the rules:
- Collect the fruits of the bush. You can choose any variety of gooseberry. Emerald jam requires unripe berries.
- Take 1 kg of fruit and 100 g of granulated sugar, 200 g of nuts, half a glass of water. The quantity and type of nuts can be changed.
- Stuff the berries with nuts, this will make the jam much tastier.
Preparing the main ingredients
First of all, walnut kernels are prepared and crushed to the size of berries. But it is not recommended to make them too small; they need to protrude slightly from the gooseberries.
Then the berries are cleaned and stuffed tightly with nuts. They can be taken in any color: red and green. The tip of each of them is cut off and the pulp is removed with a hairpin. You can’t squeeze it out, as the green, unripe fruits will burst under pressure. The removed internal parts are placed in a pan.
Royal gooseberry jam with nuts
To prepare you will need:
- Gooseberries – 1 kg.
- Sugar - 1 kg.
- Peanuts - 150-200 g.
- Vodka - 50 ml.
- Cherry leaves - 100 g.
- Lemon.
- Vanilla.
Gooseberries are cleared of pulp and seeds, then washed. After they dry, a toasted nut is placed inside each of them. Fruits with peanuts are placed in a jar in layers, between which lemon slices and cherry leaves are placed.
The container with the berries is filled with boiling water and left to infuse. After 6 hours, the liquid is poured into a saucepan, vanilla and vodka are added there. Sweet syrup is boiled from the resulting mixture.Then berries and nuts are laid out in it, lemon and cherry leaves are separated from them. After 10 minutes, leaves are added to the pan with jam, after which it is cooked for another 3 minutes.
The finished royal jam should have transparent berries. It is poured into jars, and lemon slices and cherry leaves are placed on top.
Gooseberry jam with walnuts and cardamom
To prepare you will need:
- Green unripe gooseberries.
- Walnuts - 30-50 g.
- Sugar - 1.5 kg for sour berries, 1 kg for sweet ones.
- Water - half a liter.
- Ground cardamom.
The nuts are cracked, shelled, and broken into small pieces. The berries are washed, the tails are removed from both sides, it is important not to disturb their integrity. The pulp is removed manually using hairpins, paper clips, and pins. It is recommended to rinse the hollow berries under running water using a colander. This is necessary so that the seeds remaining inside do not end up in the jam.
The insides of the berries are placed in a saucepan and filled with 3 glasses of water, after which they are placed on low heat and boiled for half an hour.
While the pulp decoction is being prepared, the gooseberry fruits are stuffed tightly with walnuts so that they do not fall out during cooking. If the berry is large enough, you can put a quarter of the nut kernel in it.
After 30 minutes, the broth is filtered and half of 1 liter is left, this is exactly the amount needed to prepare the jam according to the recipe. Sugar is added to the broth in a saucepan and brought to a boil. The syrup is cooked first over high heat with frequent stirring, then over low heat for 2-3 minutes.
Stuffed berries are poured with cooled syrup and left overnight.In the morning, the jam with added cardamom is brought to a boil and boiled for five minutes over low heat. To make the jam thick, you need to cook it for 5 minutes 3-4 times every 5-6 hours.
Expiration date of jam
Provided you follow the rules for preparing and preserving for the winter, the product retains its quality for 3 years. During this period, every year the amount of microelements and vitamins in the jam decreases, and the taste changes slightly.
If you use jam that has been stored for 5 years or more, it will not harm your health, but you should not expect any benefits from it.
How long to store jam
Jars of jam are stored at a temperature of 10-15 degrees Celsius. They should not be exposed to sunlight. It is optimal to place them in dark basements that are not flooded with water.
When sending jars to be stored for the winter, it is very important to protect them from strong temperature changes, because this will cause the product to become sugary or moldy.
If the humidity level in the room is high, the metal jar lids will rust. As a result, the jam will no longer be edible.
Gooseberry jam with nuts is a tasty and very healthy product, the use of which can protect against colds in the fall. Tsarskoe is considered the most delicious, but even boiled berries with nuts in sweet syrup do not lose their benefits. To eat jam all year round, you need to follow the above recipes and store the jars correctly.
