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Mulberry Marmalade and Jam
These may be made from the berries used for jelly, in which case the stems must be clipped before cooking, but they are richer to be made with fresh, uncooked berries. For Marmalade mash the pulp and put through coarse sieve, return to fire with equal measure of sugar, and cook till of desired consistency. For the Jam simmer the berries in their own juice till tender but whole. Add sugar as above and cook till thick as desired.
A sparse set of instructions that assumes you already know what jam looks like when it is done. The two things it leaves out are acid and a set test, and mulberries need both.
- Stems firstMulberry stems are green, fibrous and firmly attached, and they do not soften with cooking. Clip them with small scissors before the fruit goes near heat, whether or not you are recycling jelly pulp.
- Equal measure of sugarThe word "measure" points to volume rather than weight: a cup of sugar to a cup of prepared fruit, which comes out near enough to equal weights either way. It is a full-sugar preserve, and that is what makes it keep.
- Mulberries have almost no acid or pectinMulberries are low in acid and pectin -- This is the hinge. Left alone they tend to cook down to a dark syrup that is slow to set and tastes flat. Two to three tablespoons of lemon juice per pound of fruit brightens the flavour and gives the pectin something to work with; some recipes add a proportion of underripe fruit or a tart apple for the same reason.
- "Till of desired consistency"Set point is 220F at sea level, about 8F above the boiling point of water where you are. A cold-saucer test works too: a spoonful chilled a minute should wrinkle when pushed. Expect 20-40 minutes of open boiling.
- Coarse sieveA coarse sieve holds back stem fragments and the toughest skin while letting the small seeds through, which is what separates this marmalade from a jelly. A food mill on its widest plate does the same job.
- The jam versionSimmering the berries in their own juice before adding sugar keeps them whole; sugar added at the start firms the skins and the fruit stays hard. Ripe mulberries collapse quickly, so five to ten minutes at a bare simmer is usually enough.
- Yield and keepingYield depends on how far you boil it down; 2 lb of berries plus sugar will fill several half-pint jars. For shelf storage, fill sterilised jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes; otherwise refrigerate and use within a month.
- StainingMulberry juice stains hands, wood and grout stubbornly. Work in a stainless or enamelled pan and keep the fruit off porous surfaces.
Mulberries were a dooryard fruit rather than a market one, which is why they turn up in a household fruit book and almost never in a grocer's list. The trees, both the white mulberry planted during the recurring American silkworm enthusiasms of the nineteenth century and the native red, fruit heavily and drop their berries over a period of weeks; the fruit bruises within hours of picking and will not travel, so anyone with a tree had a glut that had to be dealt with at home. That explains the thrifty opening line here, recycling the pulp left over from jelly-making, and the author's honest admission that fresh fruit makes the better preserve. It also explains the pairing of marmalade and jam in one entry: the same panful of berries could go two ways depending on how much of the seed and skin the cook was willing to tolerate.