Krusbär

And his imagination pictured the garden-paths, flowers and fruit, starling cotes, the carp in the pond, and all that sort of thing, you know. These imaginary pictures were of different kinds according to the advertisements which he came across, but for some reason in every one of them he had always to have gooseberries. He could not imagine a homestead, he could not picture an idyllic nook, without gooseberries.

"'Country life has its conveniences,' he would sometimes say. 'You sit on the verandah and you drink tea, while your ducks swim on the pond, there is a delicious smell everywhere, and... and the gooseberries are growing.'

ur The Wife and Other Stories, av Anton Chekhov

Kom just att tänka på att vi inte sa något om Sverige och våra svenska krusbär när vi talade om olika bäruttryck häromdagen.

Och så var det krusbärets mindre salongsfähiga betydelser, ett område som Karin inte behärskar, men gärna vill veta mer om.
Old Gooseberry är en eufemism för djävulen, belagt 1796.
Som alternativ till storken och kållandet hände det understundom att man lät barn förstå att spädbarn hämtade man under en krusbärsbuske. (Snacka om att vara född under en buske).

Både gäss och krusbär tycks ha varit vanligt förekommande uttryck på diverse sexuella aktiviteter: goose and duck was rhyming slang for "fuck;" Farmer identifies Winchester goose as "a woman; whence, by implication, the sexual favor," and goose as a verb "to go wenching, to womanize, also to possess a woman." He also has goose-grease for a woman's sexual juices, while gooser and goose's neck meant "the penis." Gooseberries (they are hairy) was "testicles," and gooseberry pudding "a woman."

Att spökskriva kan knappast betraktas som ekivokt, men också där figurerar krusbäret: used from c. 1902 for secret writing using lemon juice, etc. A late 19c. term for "one whose work is credited to another" was gooseberry-picker.

 "Gooseberry fool" är kanske en passande efterrätt för den som råkar ha några krusbär kvar.

Serves 6
450g sharp cooking gooseberries
3-4 heaped tbsp sugar
300ml double cream

Top and tail 450g of sharp cooking gooseberries. Tip them in a pan with 3 or 4 heaped tbsp of sugar and one or two of water, then bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes until the fruit has burst. Cool then chill. Crush with a fork. Whip 300ml double cream till thick, but stop before it will stand in peaks. It should sit in soft folds.

The trick Use sharp cooking gooseberries, not the sweeter, fat dessert varieties. Other than that, it is all in the whipping of the cream. Put the bowl in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes before you pour the cream in. Whip slowly, with a hand whisk. Stop once the cream starts to feel heavy on the whisk and will lie in soft, undulating folds. Fold in the fruit only when it is cool. It will curdle if still warm. Don't leave it uncovered in the fridge for long, otherwise it will absorb all the other flavours in there. Parmesan fool, anyone?

Så här säger Wikipedia om desserten "foole":

Foole is first mentioned as a dessert in 1598 (together with trifle), although the origins of gooseberry fool may date back to the 15th century. The earliest recipe for fruit fool dates to the mid 17th century. Why the word "fool" is used as the name of this fruit dessert is not clear. Several authors derive it from the French verb fouler meaning "to crush" or "to press" (in the context of pressing grapes for wine) but this derivation is dismissed by the Oxford English Dictionary as baseless and inconsistent with the early use of the word.