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Cranberry Jam
Take a quantity of berries, wash them thoroughly and allow their weight in sugar. Put the sugar with water--about one-half pint of water to each one pound of berries--into a preserving-pan, set it on the fire and boil for ten minutes, stirring constantly and skimming off the froth all the time. Add the berries and finish boiling until they are quite soft and of a good color. When done warm some glasses or jars, put in the preserves and tie down with some pieces of paper steeped in brandy laid on the top of each. The jars should be opened only when wanted and be re-covered if all is not required at once, as exposure to the air spoils the jam.
A plain equal-weight preserve that relies on cranberries' own pectin and acid. The only part that does not translate is the storage.
- The ratioEqual weights of fruit and sugar, plus half a pint of water per pound of berries. A pound of fresh cranberries is about 4 cups, so a two-pound batch takes 2 lb (about 4 1/2 cups) sugar and 2 cups water.
- Preserving-panA wide, shallow, unlined copper or heavy brass pan. Any wide heavy-bottomed non-reactive pot works; width matters more than depth because evaporation is what sets the jam.
- Boiling the syrup firstTen minutes of hard boiling before the fruit goes in concentrates the syrup and lets you skim scum from the sugar cleanly. Skip it and you get a cloudier jam, not a failed one.
- "Quite soft and of a good color"Cranberries pop and collapse within 8-12 minutes. The set point is 220F on a thermometer, or a spoonful that wrinkles when pushed on a chilled plate. Cranberries are rich in pectin and acid, so this jam sets readily and will overcook into a stiff, dull-brown block if pushed much past that.
- Skins and seedsThe original leaves the fruit whole. For a smoother jam, press the cooked mass through a sieve before potting; for a sauce-like texture, leave it as it is.
- Brandy paper is not a sealSpirit-soaked paper laid on the surface was the standard mold defense before canning, and it is why the recipe warns about exposure to air. It does not sterilize or exclude oxygen the way a modern lid does. Treat this as a refrigerator jam, or process filled half-pint jars in a boiling water bath following current tested times for high-acid preserves.
- Warming the glassesSound practice for the same reason it always was: cold glass filled with boiling preserve can crack. Heat the jars in a low oven or in hot water and fill them while both are hot.
- YieldTwo pounds of berries with two pounds of sugar gives roughly five to six half-pint jars.
The equal-weight method here is standard European preserving practice applied to a New World fruit, and it works particularly well on cranberries because they carry enough natural pectin and acid to set without any added help, at a time when commercial pectin was not yet a household staple. The brandy-soaked paper cover is older still: spirits laid over the surface of a preserve were a common guard against surface mold long before reliable vacuum sealing, and the closing warning about re-covering the jar suggests these were opened and dipped into over weeks rather than eaten at a sitting.