Gooseberry, orange and lemon balm jam is a real taste of summery sunshine for me and so very quintessentially British with the gooseberries taking central stage. This mixture of fruits and herbs goes really well together with a sweetness, tartness and the zing of the lemon balm, perfection!
I just made one jar from this recipe, I had just managed to get 300g of gooseberries so I was only too happy to have got at least a jar of lovely jam from them.
If you haven’t used lemon balm before then you really ought to try it. Lemon balm is a mamber of the mint family so it is incredibly easy to grow but isn’t as invasive as mint so won’t make a take-over of your entire garden. It is beautifully fragrant and tastes of fresh zingy lemons making it ideal for cooking, salads and popping into summery drinks when the sun is shining!
Don’t worry if you haven’t got any lemon balm just make the jam without it.
This gooseberry, orange and lemon balm jam is perfect on your breakfast toast and also livens up a cheese board too.
Karon x
- 300g/11 oz gooseberries
- zest and juice of 1 orange
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh lemon balm
- 200g/7 oz sugar
- Pick through the gooseberries removing turfts etc
- Add the gooseberries, orange zest and juice and sugar to a pan and simmer till sugar has completely dissolved thenboil for 20 minutes
- Mash down the gooseberries in the jam with a potato masher as they soften and become tender
- Skim off any scum on top of the jam
- Add the chopped lemon balm just before you ladle it into a sterilised jar
I’ve been looking for recipes that include lemon balm as I have a lovely healthy bush of it this year after having a complete cull of it last year. It does take over and you can afford to dig it out or cut right back because it will come again the following year. However I have read it can have unpleasant side effetcs and as I sell my jams etc for charity fundraising I need to be very careful what I add to my preserves. Is it therefor completely safe to add the chopped leaves to the jam in your opinion?
I’ve never had any problems with lemonbalm
K x