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Spanish Jam
To juice of 5 qts. currants add 2 cups water and bring to boil, skimming repeatedly. Stir in the grated rind of 6 oranges, boil for 20 minutes, then add the juice of the oranges. Stir in 5 lbs. sugar and 1 1/2 lbs. raisins, and boil for 1 hour, or till it reaches the proper consistency.
A currant-and-orange preserve of the old long-boil school, written for a cook who judged doneness by eye. The measurements are generous and the timings assume a wide kettle over a strong flame.
- How much fruit"Juice of 5 qts. currants" almost certainly means the juice pressed from five quarts of berries, not five quarts of finished juice. Reckon on roughly 2 1/2 to 3 quarts of juice from that much fruit, though ripeness and how hard you press will move the figure. Scale the whole recipe down by half unless you own a preserving pan of at least 8 quarts, since the mixture climbs the sides once the sugar goes in.
- Rind before juiceThe rind goes in first and boils 20 minutes, which softens the shreds; the juice is added afterwards, which at least spares it a long boil, though the recipe gives no reason for the order. Take only the coloured layer of the peel, as white pith in this quantity will turn the jam bitter over a long boil.
- Judging the setAn hour is longer than most currant preserves need. Currants are high in pectin and acid, so start testing at 30 minutes: the jam is done at 220F (104C) on a candy thermometer, or when a spoonful chilled on a cold saucer wrinkles when pushed. Boiling well past that point gives a dark, sticky mass rather than a jam.
- SkimmingThe foam that rises during the first boil is fine fruit solids and air. Skim it off as directed and the finished jam stays clear; leave it and the surface clouds.
- The raisinsA pound and a half of raisins is a substantial addition and they will swell and soften as they cook, thickening the whole. If using large muscat-type raisins, chop them so they distribute rather than sinking.
- Yield and keepingMade at full scale this is a large batch; the number of half-pint jars will depend on how far you boil it down, so have more jars ready than you expect to need. The recipe gives no sealing instructions, which was common in an era when jars were often topped with paraffin. For storage at room temperature use current water-bath canning directions for a high-acid fruit preserve; otherwise refrigerate and use within a month.
Names like this one attached themselves loosely to preserves in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, usually signalling a foreign or luxurious note rather than any actual origin abroad; "Spanish" here may point to the oranges and raisins, both associated in the American grocery trade with Spain and the Mediterranean, worked into an otherwise thoroughly domestic currant jam. Red currants were a dooryard fruit in the northern states and their high pectin made them a reliable base for jellies and jams before commercial pectin was widely sold, so a cook with a currant bush and a few bought oranges could produce something that read as festive.