TOP 9 recipes for making royal gooseberry jam for the winter

If the housewife has patience and a desire to pamper her family, she will choose to prepare several recipes for gooseberry jam, called royal: with currants, with lemon, kiwi. Gooseberries contain a lot of natural gelling agent, so you don’t need to add pectin. And the color of the delicacy can be either emerald green or deep red. Cherry leaves, walnuts, and citrus fruits are often added to the berries.

Why is jam called royal?

This jam was the favorite of Empress Catherine II. One day, getting up early in the morning, she sat down at her desk to attend to matters of national importance. I accidentally looked out the window and saw an elderly woman running around the yard after a chicken. She asked the valet who she was. He replied that the old woman was coming to see her grandson, a cook in the royal kitchen. He treated his grandmother to a bird.

Taking pity on the old woman, the queen ordered that she be given a beaten chicken every day. The elderly woman really wanted to do something nice for the empress, so she came up with an unexpected gift: through her grandson she gave gooseberry jam - with clear juice and berries like precious stones.

The Empress appreciated the taste of the jam. They began to call him Tsarsky a little later.

Features of preparing royal gooseberry jam for the winter

Thanks to several recommendations, the dessert will please the whole family:

1. Use enamel cookware. If you don’t have one, you can take stainless steel dishes.
2. The jars must be sterilized so that the dessert does not become moldy or sour. Pour jam into dry jars.
3. During the boiling process, you need to remove the foam.
4. It is better to use a wooden or plastic spatula for stirring.
5. The cooking time indicated in the recipe must be followed. But after finishing it, do not forget to check the dish for readiness - perhaps there was not enough time. To check the dessert for readiness, pour a drop of jam onto a plate: if it doesn’t spread, it’s ready.

Requirements for main ingredients

For royal jam you need selected, large gooseberries.

There is no need to choose overripe gooseberries, because during cooking the fruits will boil and lose their shape.

If you plan to take gooseberries from your own garden plot, they should be collected two weeks before they are fully ripe. If the berries are purchased, you should pay attention to their appearance: red ones are already overripe, they are not suitable; you need bright green, hard to the touch.

Wash the selected berries and place in a colander to drain. Then remove the ponytails with a knife or nail scissors. It is not recommended to tear off so as not to damage the integrity of the skin.

Immediately before cooking, it is better to prick each berry a couple of times - this way it will be sufficiently saturated with syrup, become juicy and will hold its shape.

How to make emerald gooseberry jam at home?

We offer several options for cooking dessert.

Classic recipe with cherry leaves

Thanks to cherries, the dessert will have a special aroma, and you can achieve an unusual green tint.

We take:

• kilogram of fruit;
• a handful of cherry leaves (for soaking);
• 2 tbsp. water;
• 1.5 kg granulated sugar.

The jam is prepared like this:

1. Select the densest berries. Make a small cut near the stalk and select the seeds. Wash the gooseberries and drain off any unnecessary liquid.
2. Place the berries in a bowl and layer with cherries. They must stand for six hours.
3. Drain the liquid into a separate saucepan (you will need it for the syrup). The berries need to be dried. And throw away the leaves.
4. The syrup is cooked with the addition of sugar. Boil the liquid, stir the sugar until it dissolves.
5. Place berries in boiling syrup.Remove from heat for three to four hours so that the fruits have time to soak in the syrup.
6. Start boiling the jam again. When it boils, note the time: cook for five minutes, turn off the gas and leave to cool and soak. This should be done three or four times for 5 minutes.

Option with vodka

We take:

• 1 kg gooseberries;
• 100 g leaves;
• kilogram of sugar;
• teaspoon of citric acid;
• 5 tbsp. water;
• 50 ml vodka;
• ½ tsp. vanillin.

Preparation:

1. Remove the seeds from the berries and cover with water for about six hours, then place in a colander.
2. Pour the required volume of water into the pan, add lemon and leaves. When it boils, wait five minutes and turn off.
3. Remove the leaves and add sugar. Stir and boil.
4. When the sugar is completely dissolved, pour in vodka and add vanillin. Pour this syrup over the berries and wait a third of an hour. Cook for about 10 minutes.

With walnuts

The dessert will take on an unusual taste with the addition of nuts. It is advisable to select larger and green berries.

You will need:

• kilogram of berries;
• 1.5 kg granulated sugar;
• a handful of nuts.

The jam is prepared like this:

1. Wash the fruits and cut at the stem. Remove the center and pass through a sieve, discarding the seeds.
2. Place the resulting puree in a small saucepan and place it in a larger saucepan with hot water. Pour sugar into it and heat it in a bathhouse. After the sugar mass has dissolved, the gas can be turned off. The syrup is ready.
3. Place a piece of nut into the shell of each gooseberry. Place the fruits in syrup. Boil in several approaches. It is necessary for the jam to boil and cook for five minutes. Then turn off the heat and let it cool and soak. It is better to do three or four boils to prepare a delicious emerald dessert.

Simple recipe without cooking

Delicious jam is made without cooking. The secret is simple: you need to grind the gooseberries in a meat grinder and mix them well with sugar. Wait several hours until the sugar is completely dissolved. You need to stir periodically.

When everything is ready, transfer to jars and roll up the lids.

With lemon and orange

You can make not only tasty, but also very healthy jam without heat treatment, that is, using the cold method.

In winter and chilly autumn, a couple of spoons of this medicine can protect against colds. And the whole secret is in the combination of gooseberries with citrus fruits (you can use one or the other if you wish), because the body is saturated with vitamin C.

To prepare we take:

• kilogram of gooseberries (any variety is suitable);
• kilogram of sugar;
• one piece each of orange and lemon (you can take two pieces of either one).

Cooking steps:

1. Wash all the berries, cut off the stems.
2. Grind the fruits in a blender bowl or in a meat grinder.
3. Pour boiling water over the citrus fruits and cut them together with the peel into pieces, which also need to be ground.
4. Mixtures - berry and citrus - are mixed with the addition of granulated sugar.

In this form, the resulting mass can be frozen in special containers or bags for making ice.

You can do it differently. Leave the mixture on the counter for 5-6 hours, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. If there is no time to wait, you can heat the saucepan a little, just so that the mixture does not boil, and stir for about a third of an hour. This will make the sugar melt much faster.

Transfer the mixture into half-liter jars and roll up. To make it safer, you can sprinkle a spoonful of sugar on top of the product and then close it.

Keep in the refrigerator or basement out of direct sunlight.

With currants

If you add currant fruits to dessert, you will get a beautiful shade. And in order to preserve the emerald color of the gooseberry, it is better to take its white variety.

We take:

• 1 kg gooseberries;
• 300 g currant berries;
• 1.8 kg granulated sugar;
• 250 ml water.

The gooseberries need to be washed and the tails cut off. Wash the currants too and place in a sieve to drain the water.

Make syrup from water and sugar: boil it until the sugar melts.

Place all the berries here. Let it boil and cook for 5 minutes. Let cool for 6 hours and boil again for the same amount.

With kiwi

Kiwi will not only give an additional green tint to the jam, but will also add an interesting sourness.

Required Products:

• 1.5 kg of gooseberries;
• 4 pieces of kiwi;
• 2 kg sugar.

You need to prepare it like this:

1. Peel the kiwi. Wash the gooseberries, sort them, cut off all the branches.
2. Twist kiwi and gooseberries together. Add sugar to the mixture in a saucepan and mix everything. Place on low heat and cook until all the crystals have melted.
3. Stir constantly, collect the foam and wait for the mass to thicken. This will take about 40 minutes. When it cools, the jam will be even thicker.

With orange

Gooseberry jam with the addition of orange turns out emerald with a hint of red. To prepare it, you need to twist a kilogram of berries with orange pulp. Sprinkle the resulting puree with a kilogram of sugar and add grated zest. Place on low heat. When it boils, boil for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, turn off the heat and leave on the stove for 15-20 minutes.

From red gooseberries

The dessert takes only an hour to prepare, taking into account the preparatory process. A kilogram of berries yields approximately 2.5 liters of delicious delicacy.

We take:

• 1 kg gooseberries;
• 0.5 l of water;
• 1 kg sugar.

First you need to wash the berries, remove the stems and tails. Place in a saucepan with a thicker bottom. Pour water and turn the heat on high. After boiling, set aside for one minute, reduce heat and simmer until the berries are soft. This will take no more than a quarter of an hour.

Add sugar and wait until the jam boils again. Skim off any foam that has formed and cook for another 15 minutes. It’s easy to determine if the jam is ready: dip a spoon in it and put it in the freezer for 5 seconds. Then run your finger over the spoon. If the film has wrinkled, you can turn off the jam. If not, boil for a few more minutes and check the same.

Rules for storing royal delicacies

Jars of gooseberry jam are placed in a cool place. Usually this is a cellar, where the temperature does not rise above +3-5 degrees. If the delicacy is simply covered with plastic lids, then the containers should be placed in the refrigerator.