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Pineapple Jam
Select pineapples just ripe, peel and trim, cutting into slices, and afterwards into small squares. Weigh the fruit, and for each pound allow one pound of caster-sugar. Place the fruit in a preserving-pan, stirring it constantly over the fire with a wooden spoon until the juices are all extracted and quite hot, then add the sugar gradually, stirring the while until set; turn the jam into jam-jars and leave them in a cool place until the following morning; put in each jar a round of brandied paper, cover with parchment, tie down and put away in a dry cupboard.
A plain equal-weights preserve that depends entirely on cooking the fruit soft before the sugar goes in. Pineapple carries almost no pectin, so the set is looser than a berry jam and the finish has to be judged by temperature or plate test rather than by the clock.
- Soften the fruit firstThe instruction to stir the fruit alone "until the juices are all extracted and quite hot" is the hinge. Sugar added to firm pineapple sets the pieces and they stay tough for the life of the jar, so keep the fruit over low heat, covered if it seems dry, until the squares are translucent and yielding.
- Caster sugarSuperfine granulated sugar, sold as caster or baking sugar. It was specified because it dissolves quickly off the spoon; ordinary granulated works if you add it in stages and stir until no grit is felt on the pan bottom.
- "Until set"Pineapple is low in pectin, so expect a soft, spoonable set rather than a firm one. Boil to 220F at sea level, or test a spoonful on a chilled plate; commercial pectin, or the juice of a lemon per pound, will help it firm if you want a stiffer jam.
- Preserving-panA wide, heavy, non-reactive pan — stainless or lined copper. Depth works against you here; surface area is what drives off water. Untinned copper or bare aluminium will react with the fruit acid.
- Trim and weigh in the right orderWeigh after peeling and coring, since the recipe means fruit-to-sugar by prepared weight. A 3 lb pineapple gives roughly 1.5 lb of usable flesh, so two average fruit call for about 3 lb of sugar.
- Brandied paper and parchmentA disc of paper dipped in brandy laid directly on the surface of the jam, then a parchment cover tied down with string. It suppresses surface mould but is not a seal. The recipe has the filled jars stand overnight in a cool place first, so the paper and cover go on once the jam is cold.
- Storage by current practiceRather than paper covers and a dry cupboard, use sterilised jars with two-piece lids and either process in a boiling water bath per current guidance or keep the jars refrigerated and eat within a month. Paper-covered jam relied on constant inspection and cool larders.
The recipe dates from the era when pineapple was still shorthand for luxury at an American hotel table, though the ground was shifting fast underneath it: steamship traffic from the Caribbean and the Hawaiian plantations had brought fresh fruit within reach of a city market, and canned pineapple was becoming a staple within a decade. The insistence on fruit "just ripe" matters more than it sounds, since pineapple does not sweeten after cutting and an underripe one yields a thin, sharp preserve. The technique itself — weigh the fruit, match it pound for pound with sugar, cover with brandied paper — is straight English still-room practice, and the language of the text itself — "caster-sugar," "tie down," "dry cupboard" — is British throughout.