If you've ever made gooseberry jam at home, you'll know the slightly baffling moment when your bright green gooseberries slowly turn red in the pan. It happens every time we make our Invicta Gooseberry Preserve, and it still surprises me a little - even after all these years.
Here's what's going on...
It's all about anthocyanins
Green gooseberries aren't just green. Underneath that sharp, acidic exterior, they also contain pigments called anthocyanins - the same pigments responsible for the deep red of cherries, the blue of blueberries, and the purple of blackcurrants. In a fresh gooseberry, these pigments are present but hidden. The green chlorophyll dominates, and you'd never know they were there.
During cooking, that all changes. Heat breaks down the chlorophyll, and the anthocyanins start to do their thing. They're highly sensitive to both temperature and pH, and as conditions in the pan shift during the jam-making process, they react and transform - pulling the colour from green, through yellow and orange, and often all the way to red or deep pink.
Why no two batches look the same
This is the part I find most fascinating! The exact shade of red, or pink, or deep ruby - varies from batch to batch. It depends on the specific composition of the fruit, how ripe the gooseberries are, the acidity of that particular harvest, and even the pan you use. We also add a little lemon juice to our preserve, which we think plays a part - anthocyanins are sensitive to acidity, and it seems to nudge the colour further towards red. But the honest answer is that no two batches ever look exactly the same, which makes making our Invicta Gooseberry Preserve all the more fun!
It's also a good reminder of what you're actually getting when you buy a preserve made from real fruit in small batches. Not a product engineered to look identical every time, but something that reflects the fruit, the season, and the conditions of that particular cook.
About our Invicta Gooseberry Preserve
Invicta is a specific variety of green gooseberry, grown right here in the UK. They're sharp, tart and intensely fruity. We make our preserve in small batches at our jam factory in Bristol, and it's only available while the season lasts!
