Editor's Pick #11: Goosegog sauce

Editor's note: Some of my favourite posts from the archives include the historical tidbits to go along with the usual fantastic recipe and this one is no different. Being from the UK myself it's sometimes easy to forget that not everyone speaks the same parlance if you will. As usual, MiamMiam delivers where I forget! So, enough waffle, read on for an ultra-versatile sauce, good hot or cold, sweet or savoury.

Goosegog sauce

This is a really easy sauce. You can serve it hot or cold – hot I think is preferable if serving with the fries. Cold works well if you're tipping it over ice cream.

Goosegog sauce

340g goosegogs

cold water to cover

55g unsalted butter – divided into

25g (melted) and 30g

Top and tail the goosegogs and wash well. Place in a medium size saucepan (18cm diameter) and just cover with cold water – do not drown! Cook the fruit gently and when it comes to a boil, reduce the heat and cook until tender. Drain the fruit – you won't need the liquid. Mix the drained fruit with a melted knob of butter – 25g. Tip the fruit into a sieve and press through, use the back of a wooden spoon to help. Discard the remains in the sieve and tip the fruit into a clean saucepan. Add half a teaspoon of caster sugar and the remaining 30g of butter. Warm gently to dissolve the sugar and melt the butter.

Useless bits of information that you might find interesting!

In the UK cookery books, particularly of a certain age, you come across terms like “add a knob of butter” - I know what I'd add but it occurs to me that there may be someone out there who is kind enough to read this, who won't know.

A knob of butter is approximately 25g. I say approximately because it does not have to be exact as it would be if you were baking which, as we all know, is an exact science. If you look at the goosegog sauce recipe, the butter is used to enrich the sauce so a gram either way will not spoil your efforts.

Whilst I'm on the subject here's another term - “add butter the size of a walnut”. The last time I saw I whole walnut was last Christmas! You won't be surprised to learn that these terms go back to the 1850s. It may be of course that walnut trees were quite common then. Anyway butter the size of a walnut is approximately 30g.

Hey, you never know when this stuff might come in handy!