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RASPBERRY JAM (another way) (When it is not convenient)
When it is not convenient to boil the fruit as soon as it is gathered, or when perfectly fresh fruit cannot be obtained, raspberries may be preserved as follows. Weigh the raspberries, and allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar for each pound of fruit. Put the fruit and sugar in layers upon a large dish, and let them remain for some hours. When they are to be boiled, put fruit and sugar together into a preserving-pan, stir the jam to keep it from burning, and let it boil gently until it is done, which may be known by it hanging on the spoon. Remove the scum as it rises, or the jam will not be clear. Put it into jars, cover and store in the usual way. Probable cost, 6d. to 9d. per pound.
A low-sugar, quickly boiled jam intended for fruit that has had to wait a day or two. The overnight layering with sugar is the whole point of this version, and it does two useful things at once.
- Why the layering mattersStanding the fruit in sugar for several hours draws out juice and dissolves the sugar before any heat is applied. That should mean a shorter boil, which helps keep raspberry flavour and colour from darkening.
- The sugar ratioThree-quarters of a pound of sugar per pound of fruit is about 340 g sugar to 450 g raspberries, below the pound-for-pound ratio often given in Victorian preserve recipes. Expect a softer set and a shorter keeping life than a full-sugar jam.
- Testing the set"Hanging on the spoon" is the old flake test. A thermometer is more reliable: 104-105C / 220F at sea level, or chill a saucer, drop on a little jam, and push it with a fingertip to see whether it wrinkles.
- Don't overshootRaspberries carry moderate pectin and good acid and set readily. The recipe asks for a gentle boil rather than a rolling one, so start testing early; a long boil gives a stiff, caramel-tasting preserve.
- The preserving-panA wide, heavy pan with a large surface area and low sides — the shape does the work by letting water escape fast. Stainless steel or unlined copper is fine; avoid bare aluminium and cast iron, which react with the acid and dull the colour.
- SkimmingSkim as directed, or press a small knob of butter into the surface at the end of the boil to break the foam. The scum is trapped air and protein, harmless but cloudy.
- "Cover and store in the usual way"In Victorian practice this generally meant a waxed or brandied paper disc and a paper cover over the jar in a cool larder, relying on regular inspection for mould. Use clean hot jars with two-piece lids and process the filled jars in a boiling-water bath, or treat this as a refrigerator jam and eat it within a month.
- Yield and costThe recipe gives no quantity; two pounds of raspberries with the sugar would fill roughly five or six 8 oz jars. The "6d. to 9d. per pound" is pre-decimal pence.
Cassell's gives this as an alternative to the standard method, which insists the fruit be boiled the same day it is picked — sensible advice when raspberries were sold loose and travelled badly, and when a household with its own canes might gather a few pounds at a time over a week. The sugar-and-standing trick is often said to have served as a workaround in nineteenth-century preserve making: sugar draws juice from fruit by osmosis, so a cook could hold a picking overnight without it fermenting and then boil it briefly the next day. The header on the recipe is simply the opening clause of the text, which appears to work as an indexing device for distinguishing variants on a dish listed in sequence under the same headword. Jam-making on this scale was domestic rather than commercial for most of the century; large-scale British jam factories, generally traced to the 1860s and 1870s, gradually took the work over, and by the time this dictionary was reprinted many readers were buying raspberry jam by the pot rather than weighing out fruit and sugar.