Making the Best Homemade Gooseberry Jam Without Pectin (Delicious!)

In this video I will explain to you how I make jam from gooseberries. This wonderful gooseberry jam is made without pectin. That is not necessary because gooseberries naturally contain a lot of pectin. The homemade jam recipe that I use in this video can be used for any fruit with high levels of natural pectin. The result will be delicious and it is really easy to make. This jam looks great in a mason jar.

Video transcript:

Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Tony Needs Hobbies. I am Tony and in this video I will be preserving some of this years’ harvested gooseberries by making delicious jam. Follow me along.

In our backyard we have a small berry patch with a big variety of berry bushes:

• Blueberries
• Red currants
• Strawberries
• Raspberries
• And what this video is about: gooseberries

This year, all blueberries and currants were eaten by birds, but the other bushes produced exceptional amounts of berries. In this video I will preserve what is left of the gooseberries by turning them into jam without adding pectin or any other gelling agent. In the description I will post a link to a table of fruits that you can use to make jam without adding pectin. Let me show you what we need for this project.

We need enough jars to put all the jam in, and the real ingredients:

• Crystal sugar
• A lemon
• And off course, gooseberries

The first step will be sterilizing the jars. I have made jam before, and I always sterilize the jars in the following manner. First I remove the lids, and put all the clean jars and lids in a big pan. Then fill it with water and bring it to a boil on the stove. While heating up I pre-heat the oven to 125 degrees Celsius. Once the water is boiling I let it boil for 10 minutes after which I remove the jars and lids from the pan and put them on an oven rack. Then it all goes in the oven for as long as I need to make the jam. I do this so that there is no risk of shattering jars as a result of heat shock, since I will only take the jars out of the oven right before I will fill them with jam. Also, as part of the preparations, I will put two small saucers in the freezer, and take the berries out – I put them in the freezer after harvesting because I didn’t have time to preserve them at that moment.

The jars, well, not this one, but the others, will be in the oven until fully dried. Now it’s time to prepare the ingredients and turn the gooseberries into jam. It’s not that difficult but the result will taste delightful. Let’s get to it!

For this recipe, which I will also post on my blog at tonyneedshobbies.com – linked down below, I will need the juice of half a lemon, almost 800 grams of gooseberries and an equal amount of sugar. By Dutch law jam needs to have a total sugar content of 60% if you want to call it jam. This makes sure that the fruit is actually preserved and doesn’t spoil. As mentioned earlier, I will not add pectin. Many fruits can be turned into jam without gelling agents. This depends mainly on the amount of pectin in the fruit. Gooseberries have a large enough quantity by themselves and the addition of lemon juice throws in a bit of pectin as well. On my website I have a list of fruits that you can make jam out of, without the addition of pectin. A link will be placed in the description.

To start making jam, I will first put the gooseberries, lemon juice and 250 milliliters of water in a big pan and put it on the stove. I will heat it up and let it simmer for 15 minutes. To prevent burning, stir the mixture every once in a while. Once the fruit is soft and pulpy it is time to add the sugar. No need to add more heat yet. It is important that all the sugar is dissolved before bringing the mixture to a boil again. Once you cannot notice any crystals of sugar heat it up and let it boil hard for 10 minutes. Then it’s done, but just to be sure we can do a little test if this is good jam, technically. Let’s find out.

To do that I use the chilled saucers. A few drops of the jam are placed on them to drop the temperature quickly. Then when you run you finger through it and it looks and behaves like jam would, the product is ready to be canned.

With the use of a funnel – in this case a special canning funnel – you can easily pour the jam in the jars. Once that is done, put the lid on and put them upside down for a couple of minutes. This will seal the lid tightly. Remember, these full jars are hot, so use a potholder or oven mitts. When it’s cooled down a bit, put a label on them. I do this while the jars are still warm so the stickers adhere well. Now that all the work – except for cleaning – is done, it’s time to have a little taste…

That is some seriously good tasting jam. If you have some leftover berries and you like jam, definitely try making it yourself. It is very satisfying and will taste wonderful. In my next video I will let you know who won the leatherworking giveaway. I hope this video was interesting to watch, and if so, you can let me know by hitting that like button. You can also consider subscribing to my channel if you want to see more videos like this in the future.

For now, I would like to thank you for watching. Bye, bye!