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Fig and Rhubarb Jam
4 lbs. rhubarb 3 lbs. sugar 2 lemons 1 lb. figs 1/4 pint (1/2 cup) water Wash and dry the rhubarb and figs and cut them into small pieces; put them into an earthenware jar or casserole, add the sugar, the strained lemon juice, and the water. Simmer for forty minutes. Seal in jars.
This excellent preserve keeps well. 10 lbs. pears
A straightforward two-fruit preserve, but the book assumes an earthenware jar that can sit over direct heat and a jam-sealing method that no longer meets current practice. A few notes before you start.
- The stray line at the end"10 lbs. pears" -- appears to belong to the following recipe rather than this one; it has nothing to do with this jam.
- Rhubarb leavesThe 4 lb is trimmed stalks. Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid in quantity and are not edible; cut them off and discard them, along with any dried or split stem ends.
- The casseroleThe instruction to simmer implies a flameproof earthenware or stoneware pot used on the range rather than a baking dish. For jam, a wide heavy stainless or enamelled pan works better: a broad surface lets water evaporate, which is the point of the forty minutes. Avoid bare cast iron with this much acid.
- Which figsA specification of 1 lb figs by weight most likely means dried ones, though the recipe does not say. Snip off the hard stems and chop; if they are very leathery, cover with the 1/2 cup water for half an hour first and use the soaking water in the pan. Fresh figs will work but give a looser, sweeter jam.
- Sugar and set3 lb sugar to 5 lb fruit is a low ratio by preserving standards, so expect a soft jam rather than a firm one. Rhubarb brings acid but almost no pectin; the lemon helps, and you can add more by tying the squeezed lemon halves and seeds in muslin and simmering them in the pan.
- Judging the forty minutesTreat the time as a guide and test instead. Simmer with the lid off, stirring often once it thickens, and stop when a spoonful chilled on a cold plate wrinkles when pushed, or the mixture reaches 220F. Rhubarb scorches easily at the end.
- Sealing"Seal in jars" in period practice usually meant hot jam poured into hot jars and covered with paper or a paraffin-wax disc. Current practice is hot jam into hot sterilised jars, two-piece lids, then a boiling water bath for 10 minutes for half-pints, adjusting for altitude. Anything not sealed goes in the refrigerator and gets eaten within a month.
- YieldRoughly 10 to 12 half-pint jars, depending on how far you reduce it.
Rhubarb was the cheap engine of British domestic preserving from the mid-nineteenth century onward: it crops heavily, it comes in early when nothing else does, and its sharpness carries other flavours well. Because it sets poorly on its own, cookery books of the period often paired it with something with body and sweetness — dried figs, dates, raisins, ginger, or the imported dried fruit that grocers sold year-round. The figs here do double duty, thickening the jam with their pulp and seeds and standing in for the ripeness rhubarb never has. That a casserole is offered here as one of the vessels is a reminder that the earthenware casserole was once a general-purpose stovetop pot rather than a baking dish, prized for holding steady heat over a slow fire — exactly what a preserve pan needs.