Gooseberry jam comes in many varieties. It’s a real make-it-at-home jam and people like to add their own spin on this simple jam. My gooseberry jam with orange and lemon balm is super easy to make and the mix of flavours really sings on your toast!
Gooseberries come in a variety of different types. There are the pinky blush ones that taste sweet and tart all at the same time and the taste goes more sour as you get to the really light green varieties of gooseberry.
The really sour ones will ceratinly make your mouth pucker! I’ve gone for these blush pink gooseberries, they make this jam perfectly balanced for me anyway.
This simple gooseberry 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!
Lemon balm
If you haven’t used this herb before you are in for treat. Lemon balm is a member of the mint family (watch it, this stuff grows like the proverbial weed!) and is packed with lemon flavour and scent. It makes a great herb for the garden as the leaves can be both solid bright green or variegated with lovely splashes of lemon yellow. Walking past this bush and ruffling the leaves give the most amazing fragrance.
Lemon balm tea is lovely and refreshing as well as relaxing.
The zingy lemon flavour in lemon balm makes it’s leaves perfect for dding to a salad (both savoury and sweet), for decorating cakes and also adding to your G&T and other drinks.
Don’t worry if you haven’t got any lemon balm just make the jam without it. Or you could add 1/2 a teaspoon of fresh lemon zest to replace the lemon balm.
Gooseberry jam ingredients
You can make gooseberry jam with just 3 ingredients; gooseberries, water and sugar. Simple and delicious. But I like to mix things up a bit and I have a huge bush of lemon balm in my garden so like to make use of the stuff in as many ways as possible. It goes perfectly in this gooseberry jam with the addition of some orange just to ramp up that citrus flavour even more. By using the orange (juice and zest) I cut out adding water to my jam.
How to make gooseberry jam
The hardest part of making this jam is taking the time to pull off the little tufts on the ends of the gooseberries. Seriously, that’s how difficult this jam is to make. You are simply going to boil up your ingredients and them pot it up in a sterilised jar.
How much jam does this recipe make
I only used 300g of gooseberries in my jam recipe simply because that was all I got from our one and only gooseberry bush lurking at the bottom of the garden.
To make more jam simply double up the recipe. I just made one jar of gooseberry jam from this recipe. Wish I had another gooseberry bush!
How to serve gooseberry jam
This jam is lovely and fresh to wake you up in the morning on your breakfast toast. It is also good in a ploughman’s lunch alongside cheese and cold ham.
The zingy flavours of orange and lemon in this jam also make it perfect as the filling in a summer sponge cake.
Why not add a dollop to a cheese board too. The citrus and gooseberry flavours cut through rich cheese perfectly.
How long will gooseberry jam keep?
This jam will keep for up to a year. Once opened store it in the fridge and use up within a month.
New to preserving? Then don’t panic, I can take you from zero to hero in the preserving stakes in no time at all!
Just check out these quick articles to get you started;
Fancy some more summer time jam making? Then check out these jammy ideas;
Strawberry jam with sage and red wine
Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.
Gooseberry jam with orange and lemon balm
Ingredients
- 300 g gooseberries
- 1 orange zest and juice
- 1 tbsp lemon balm chopped
- 200 g sugar
Instructions
- 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 then boil for 15-20 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