Raspberry Jam
-INGREDIENTS.- To every lb. of raspberries allow 1/4 lb. of sugar, 1/4 pint of red-currantjuice. AVERAGE Cost, 6d. per pot.
RASPBERRY LIQUEUR.
Let the fruit for this preserve be gathered in fine weather, and used as soon after it is picked as possible. Take off the stalks, put the raspberries into a preserving-pan, break them well with a wooden spoon, and let them boil for 1/4 hour, keeping them well stirred. Then add the currant-juice and sugar, and boil again for 1/2 hour. Skim the jam well after the sugar is added, or the preserve will not be clear. The addition of the currant-juice is a very great improvement to this preserve, as it gives it a piquant acidity, which the flavour of the raspberries seems to require.
TIME.-1 hour to simmer the fruit without the sugar; 1/2 hour after it is added.
SEASONABLE. Make in July and August.
A two-fruit jam: raspberries cooked down alone first, then set with sugar and red-currant juice, which supplies the pectin and acid raspberries lack. The proportions are straightforward, but the quantity of currant juice and the cooking time both need judgement.
- The currant juice is the setThe currant juice helps the set -- Raspberries are only moderate in pectin and acid, so a raspberry-only jam tends to set softly. Red-currant juice is high in both and reinforces the set while keeping the colour bright; it does more than the recipe's description of it as a flavour note suggests.
- How much currant juiceThe measure has lost its fraction in this text. A quarter pint (about 140 ml) of currant juice per pound of raspberries is a sound working figure.
- Conflicting timingsThe method says boil the raspberries a quarter of an hour before adding sugar; the TIME note says an hour. Fifteen to twenty minutes is ample to break the fruit down and drive off water. Judge by the setting test rather than the clock: a spoonful on a chilled saucer should wrinkle when pushed.
- Sugar weightEqual weights of sugar and fruit gives a firm, long-keeping jam of about 60 per cent sugar. Granulated or preserving sugar both work; preserving sugar dissolves faster and throws less scum.
- Skimming and claritySkim after the sugar goes in, as directed, and skim once at the end rather than constantly, or you lose jam with the froth. A very small knob of butter stirred in at the end will disperse most of the remaining foam.
- Boiling after sugarHalf an hour of hard boiling after the sugar is added will overcook a modern batch and dull the flavour. Once the sugar has dissolved, bring to a full rolling boil and expect setting point in five to fifteen minutes depending on pan width.
- Pan and quantityUse a wide, heavy preserving pan filled no more than a third: jam climbs alarmingly at the rolling boil. Four pounds of raspberries with four pounds of sugar yields roughly six to seven 1 lb jars.
- JarsFill hot into hot sterilised jars and seal at once. Stored cool and dark, a full-sugar jam of this kind keeps a year or more; refrigerate after opening.
Raspberry and red-currant ripen together in the English July. Beeton's phrase, that the currant juice gives "a piquant acidity, which the flavour of the raspberries seems to require," is a fair description of what the acid does on the tongue, even if it misses what it is doing in the pan. The insistence that the fruit be gathered in fine weather and used as soon as possible is practical rather than fussy: rain-swollen raspberries carry extra water and spoil quickly, and a Victorian kitchen had no refrigeration to slow that down.