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Apple Jam
Water Lemon Peel, quarter, and core the apples, then put them into an earthenware pan with enough water to cover and the rind and strained juice of the lemon.
Bring them to the boiling point, stir the whole round, take out the apples, and set them to cool. When cold, put the apples into a thin syrup made of half a pound of sugar to every pound of fruit, and enough water to dissolve the sugar; allow them to boil for ten minutes, keeping it all well skimmed.
Remove the pan and let the whole cool, then set the pan over the fire and let it all simmer carefully until the fruit looks quite clear. When cool, put into jars and cover.
This is really a clear apple preserve rather than a modern jam — the fruit is meant to stay in recognisable quarters, translucent in a light syrup. The ingredient line at the top of the original has been garbled in printing; only water and lemon survive, and no weight of apples is given, so work from the ratio in the method.
- The working ratioEverything hinges on 8 oz sugar to every 1 lb of fruit. The recipe does not say whether the fruit is weighed before or after peeling and coring, though prepared weight is the likelier reading. That is a low-sugar preserve by modern standards, which is why storage matters more than usual.
- Lemon and water are unmeasuredThe recipe says 'the lemon', so a single fruit, rind and strained juice. Water is only ever 'enough to cover' in the first stage and 'enough to dissolve the sugar' in the second; no measure is given, and the syrup is described as thin.
- The panAn earthenware pan means a glazed pottery vessel used on the fire; any wide non-reactive pan works, stainless or enamelled. Avoid unlined copper or bare cast iron with this much acid.
- Don't skip the cooling stagesThe two rests are the technique, not a pause for convenience. Blanching the apples, cooling them, then bringing them slowly up in syrup lets sugar penetrate without the quarters collapsing — the same logic as candying. Rushing it gives apple sauce.
- "Until the fruit looks quite clear"This is the doneness cue and it is a good one — translucent quarters. Timing will vary with the variety and the size of the pieces; an apple that holds its shape is wanted, and a soft eating apple will not do.
- SkimmingSkim while it boils, not after. The scum is largely air and impurities thrown up by the fruit, and once it is stirred back in the preserve looks cloudy rather than clear, which defeats the whole point of the method.
- Storage, and why the original is not enough"Put into jars and cover" meant a paper or waxed-paper cover and a cool larder. With this little sugar, treat it as a refrigerator preserve and use it within a few weeks, or follow a current tested boiling-water-bath procedure for jars and processing times. Do not rely on the cover alone.
- YieldThree pounds of prepared apples takes a pound and a half of sugar. How much you finish with depends on how far the syrup reduces, so have several half-pint jars ready.
Apple preserves of this kind sit at the boundary between jam and candied fruit, and the double-cooling method here belongs to the older confectioner's tradition, where the aim was clear, whole, glassy fruit rather than a spreadable purée. Apples were the household preserving fruit of choice in Britain and America because they were cheap by the peck in autumn, kept for months in a cool store, and supplied enough pectin to set other fruits that had none.