Gooseberry and elderflower jam recipe

I didn't get round to posting this up in June when I made it but it is a great jam so I thought I'd share it anyway. Gooseberry and elderflower is a traditional jam that never appears in the supermarket so people are not used to it. Once they try it however, they love it. Again, it's another good one for the self-sufficent household selling any surplus and is very easy to make, especially if you have gooseberry bushes in full swing of production.

This is what you need:

for every kg of gooseberries, you need one kg of sugar, one lemon, 200 ml of water and one handful of freshly picked elderflower, stripped from the stalks.

This is what you have to do:

Grate the zest of the lemons and squeeze them. You don't need the peel so freeze it and use it in marmalade making at a later date.

To the jam pan add the gooseberries, lemon zest and juice and elderflower. Pour in the water. You may need to add a small amount of aditional water if the gooseberries are dry, or less if they are very ripe and juicy.

Heat the pan and boil it until the gooseberries have disintegrated.

Keep the heat under the pan and add the sugar, stirring regularly and bring it back to the boil. Check for the setting point and once it has been reached, add the jam to warmed jars.

It's got quite a tangy taste. I particularly like a large amount of elderflower in my jam but individual tastes will vary.