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Raspberry and Currant Preserves
2 lbs. raspberries 3 lbs. sugar 1 pint currant juice Cook twenty minutes and no more fruit at a time.
Three lines of shorthand that assume a cook who already knows how preserves behave. The important part is the last clause: work in small batches, and stop at twenty minutes.
- The hinge: batch size"No more fruit at a time" means do not scale up. Two pounds of berries in a wide pan reduces and sets within twenty minutes; double the load and the mixture must boil far longer, which dulls the raspberry flavour and darkens the colour. Use a wide, heavy pan so evaporation is fast.
- Currant juice is the pectinRed currants are high in both pectin and acid, and the pint of juice is what makes this set without any added pectin. The recipe does not say which currant; red is the usual reading. Reckon on roughly 1 1/2 to 2 lb of fresh or frozen currants to press a pint of juice, or buy unsweetened currant juice. Sweetened cordial or blackcurrant squash will not do the same job.
- Sugar ratioThree pounds of sugar to two of fruit plus a pint of juice is a preserving ratio, not a modern low-sugar jam. The sugar is doing preservation work as well as sweetening, so reducing it substantially will give you a loose sauce that spoils quickly.
- Twenty minutes, from whenTime it from the moment the whole surface reaches a full rolling boil, not from when the pan goes on the heat. Stir at the start until the sugar dissolves, then skim the foam once boiling is established.
- Testing the setThe original gives no test. A jam thermometer reading 220F at sea level, or a spoonful that wrinkles when pushed on a chilled saucer, both indicate a set. Subtract about 2F for every 1,000 feet of elevation.
- StoragePreserves of this period were commonly poured into hot jars and sealed with paraffin, which is no longer considered a reliable seal. Either refrigerate the filled jars and use them within a month, or follow current tested water-bath canning directions for a shelf-stable pack.
Raspberries and red currants ripen within days of each other in a northern garden, and pairing them is old practical economy: the raspberry supplies perfume, the currant supplies the acid and pectin that make a firm set possible before commercial pectin was sold in packets. Gold Medal Flour cook books were promotional publications issued by the Washburn-Crosby Company of Minneapolis, the mill that later became General Mills, and they were written for households putting up summer fruit in the few weeks it was available.