Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Gooseberries, Green, To Preserve "Whole. — Pick the tops and stalks from some large green gooseberries, put them on the fire, in a saucepan of cold water, and let them simmer gently until they are tender, but unbroken. Throw them into cold water, and for every three-quarters of a pound of fruit make a syrup with a pound of loaf sugar and a pint of water. Let the syrup grow cold, put it again into a saucepan, and lift the gooseberries gently into it. Let them boil until the sugar has got into them, then take them out carefully, and the next day drain the syrup from them, and boil it until smooth. In order to ascertain when this degree is reached, dip the finger and thumb into cold water, and take a little syrup between them. If, when they are opened, a strong thread forms, let the gooseberries boil once more until the syinip is thick. Let them cool, put them into jars, pour the syrup over them, cover securely, and keep in a cool dry place. Gooseberry and Kice Pudding. Wash half a pound .of best Carolina rice. Put it into a cloth, which Jias been dipped in hot water and floured, and lay on it a pint and a half of green gooseberries, picked and washed. Tie the cloth securely, leaving plenty of room for the rice to swell, and boil for an hour and a half. Serve it with sweet sauce. Probable cost for this quantity, 6d. Sufiicicnt for six or seven persons. Gooseberry Cakes. — Put some green goosebemes in a jar. and place it in a saucepan of boiling water. Simmer until the fruit I is soft, then press it through a sieve, and mix one pound of powdered sugar, and the whites of | two eggs, beaten to a froth, with every pound j of pulp. Beat thoroughly. Put the mixture, in small round cakes, upon sheets of paper. Place these on dishes before the fire, and when .sufficiently dry, store them in tin boxes, and keep them in a dry place. Time, about one hour to simmer the gooseberries. Gooseberry Champagne. — Choose gooseberries which, when fully ripe, have little flavour. The green Bath are the best. Take forty pounds of sound, large, hard berries, remove the tops and stalks, and put them into a fifteen-gallon tub. Bruise them sufficiently to burst the berries without breaking the seeds, and pour over them four gallons of lukewarm water. Stir, and squeeze them in the hands until both the juice and pulp are thoroughly I separated from the seeds and skins, then leave them until the next day, when the Hquid should be drawn ofl:', and the fruit pressed through a coarse sieve, with another gallon of water, to extract as much of the goodness of the fruit as I possible. Dissolve thirty pounds of loaf sugar I in the juice, and, with water, make the liquid up to eleven gallons. Leave it in the tub, add three ounces of crude tartar, cover it with a blanket, and let the temperature of the place where it is set be from 50° to 60" Fahrenheit. Let it remain for a day or two, then draw it ofl: into a ten-gallon cask, and keep it well filled near the bunghole, by pouring in the extra gallon as the liquid subsides. When the hissing noise ceases, drive in the bung, and bore a hole by its side, into which a vent-peg must be driven, and this must be loosened every two or three days, to prevent the cask bm-sting. When all danger of tliis apjiears to be over, fasten in the peg tightlv.