This gooseberry chutney is a quick, sweet one. Fully ripe gooseberries, raisins, onion and 60 ml of vinegar cook for 10 minutes, then set with sugar and liquid pectin in the same way as a jam, and the jars go through a short water bath. It is a tested recipe for a sweet, jam-set relish in the chutney family rather than a dark, long-simmered chutney, and it keeps for about a year unopened.

Makes
about 2.1 litres (about 8 jars of 250 ml)
Keeps
about a year unopened in a cool, dark place if water-bathed (step 17); once opened, in the fridge for a few weeks to a month or two
Ready to eat
once cool and set
In season
July and August for fully ripe gooseberries, later in cooler gardens

Ingredients

  • 1.3 litres (by volume, in a jug) fully ripe gooseberries
  • 60 ml cider or white vinegar, 5% acidity
  • 1 small onion, thinly sliced
  • 415 ml (by volume) raisins, finely chopped
  • 5–10 ml (1–2 teaspoons) ground ginger or mustard powder
  • 1.5 kg granulated sugar
  • 85 ml (one 85 g pouch, or measured from a bottle) liquid fruit pectin

Only 830 ml of the cooked fruit mixture goes into the relish, and the sugar and pectin are measured for exactly that amount, so make it as written and don't change any quantity.

Method

  1. Sterilise small jars (about 250 ml) by boiling them for 10 minutes, adding a minute for each 300 m or so above 300 m. This allows the shortest water bath, and a longer bath can weaken the set. A hot dishwasher cycle, water above 90°C for 10 minutes or the oven at 160°C (gas mark 3) for 10 minutes also work, but those jars need the longer bath in the table under Sealing the jars. Check the jar maker's instructions; some (Kilner, for example) advise against the oven for their jars. Let them dry fully, keep them hot until you fill them, and have new lids ready (see the sterilising guide).
  2. Pull the stalk and the dry flower end off each gooseberry, then rinse them.
  3. Measure 1.3 litres of whole gooseberries in a measuring jug.
  4. Crush them thoroughly with a potato masher, a single layer at a time in a wide pan or bowl.
  5. Put the crushed fruit in a saucepan with the vinegar, onion, raisins and ginger or mustard.
  6. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
  7. Measure 830 ml of the cooked mixture into a large, deep pan (6 to 7.5 litres).
  8. Stir in all the sugar thoroughly.
  9. Bring to the boil over a high heat, stirring all the time.
  10. At once, stir in the liquid pectin.
  11. Bring back to a full rolling boil (one that keeps bubbling even while you stir) and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring all the time.
  12. Take the pan off the heat and skim off the foam with a metal spoon.
  13. Ladle quickly into the hot sterilised jars, leaving about 5 mm of space at the top.
  14. Wipe the rims clean.
  15. Put on the new lids. Screw two-piece lids just finger tight; for other lids, follow the maker's instructions.
  16. Stand the lidded jars on a rack in a deep pan and cover with hot water by about 2.5 cm.
  17. Bring to the boil and boil for the time in the table under Sealing the jars: 5 minutes for boiled jars below about 300 m.
  18. Lift the jars out and leave them to cool undisturbed. Screw-top lids pull down as the vacuum seal forms. Keep any jar that hasn't sealed in the fridge and eat it soon. Label the rest with the date.
Crushed gooseberries simmering with chopped raisins and sliced onion in a pan, a measuring jug beside it
This relish uses fully ripe gooseberries, crushed and simmered with the raisins and onion.

Picking gooseberries for relish

This recipe needs fully ripe fruit. The riper a gooseberry, the sweeter and less sour it tastes, and some varieties turn pink or purple when they are fully ripe. The main harvest of ripe berries comes in July and August. The hard green berries taken off in the June thinning pick belong in gooseberry jam instead, where their extra pectin and acid do the setting.

Fresh gooseberries keep for up to three weeks covered in the fridge, so a small bush can be picked over a few times until there is enough. For a bigger crop than one batch can use, see dealing with a glut of gooseberries; for the bushes themselves, see growing gooseberries.

Why it needs added pectin

Gooseberries can set with sugar alone, but only when they aren't overripe, and the riper the fruit, the less pectin it contains. Fully ripe berries, diluted with raisins and onion, need help. The liquid pectin supplies the set, so there is no setting-point test: the 1-minute hard boil in step 11 is the whole cook. Other fruits are compared in pectin in fruit.

The recipe is tested with liquid pectin. If yours comes in a bottle rather than a pouch, measure 85 ml. Fill small jars rather than large ones too: a pectin set made in bigger jars can turn out too soft.

Sugar and vinegar

Sugar is the preservative here as well as part of the set, so never cut it. Less sugar gives a runnier relish that won't keep as well.

Use cider or white vinegar labelled 5% acidity. Don't change the amount of vinegar, fruit or anything else in the recipe, and don't add extra onion or other vegetables. The acid has to reach every part of the jar, which is why mixing fruit and veg in preserves only works to tested proportions.

No maturing needed

Because it sets like jam, it can be eaten as soon as it has cooled and set. It needs none of the weeks of maturing that a long-simmered vinegar chutney does.

Simmering this recipe longer or cutting the sugar won't turn it into a dark, long-simmered chutney. That style uses different proportions, so follow a recipe written for it, such as the apple chutney or green tomato chutney.

Sealing the jars

Don't skip the water bath. Jars that are only hot-filled have no tested keeping time, so keep those in the fridge and eat them soon. Lids should always be new; with clip-top jars, that means a new rubber seal.

Your kitchenHow the jars were sterilisedBoil the filled jars for
Below about 300 mBoiled for 10 minutes5 minutes
Below about 300 mDishwasher, oven or water above 90°C10 minutes
About 300 to 600 mBoiled for 11 minutes (step 1)6 minutes
About 300 to 600 mDishwasher, oven or water above 90°C11 minutes

Add a further minute for every extra 300 m or so. If you live in the hills, check your height before you start. For lids that suit a water bath, see choosing jars for preserving.

Storing and serving

Store the sealed jars in a cool, dark, dry place. Once a jar is open, keep it in the fridge and use it within a few weeks to a month or two. Throw out any relish with mould on it or a fermented, yeasty or alcohol smell. Other preserves are compared in how long preserves keep.

Serve it with a cheeseboard, cold meats, pork pies or smoked mackerel.

Common questions

Can I use the hard green gooseberries from June?

Not in this recipe, which needs fully ripe fruit. Use the June pick for gooseberry jam, which sets without added pectin.

What do I do with the cooked mixture that's left over?

The first stage makes more than the 830 ml the recipe uses. Don't add the extra to the pan, because the sugar and pectin are balanced for 830 ml. Keep the rest in a covered dish in the fridge and eat it within 2 days.

Can I use powdered pectin?

Not in this method. Powdered pectin is stirred into the fruit before the sugar, while liquid pectin goes in after the boil, so the two aren't a straight swap. Use liquid pectin as the recipe says.

Should I use ginger or mustard?

Either. Use 1 to 2 teaspoons of ground ginger or mustard powder, to taste.

Can I use malt vinegar?

Cider and white vinegar at 5% acidity are the recommended types. Whatever the type, the label must say 5% acidity; never use a vinegar whose strength isn't on the label.

Sources

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