Home › The Waldorf Kitchen › Preserved Raspberries
Preserved Raspberries
Large raspberries are best; they should be quite ripe, and care should be exercised to see that there are no insects in the hollows of the fruit. Weigh them, and to every pound of raspberries allow a pound of sugar. Put the raspberries and sugar in alternate layers in a preserving-pan, being careful to have a layer of sugar at the bottom and also at the top, and let them stand in the sugar all night. In the morning, pick off the stems from some ripe red currants, bruise them, and squeeze the juice out through a cloth. Add one breakfast cupful of this juice to every two pounds of raspberries and sugar weighed together; add the currant juice to the raspberries and sugar already in the pan, put it on the stove and stir gently until it boils. Remove all the scum as it rises, and continue stirring to keep the raspberries from sticking, but be careful not to break them. Continue to boil until clear, let them cool a little, and put them into jars. When cold, cover, and stand them away in a cool dark place.
A whole-berry preserve in the old style: equal weights of fruit and sugar, macerated overnight, then briefly boiled with red currant juice for set and acidity. The technique hinges on gentleness — the berries are meant to stay intact.
- The hinge: stir as little as possibleOnce the pan is on the heat, move the fruit with a flat wooden spatula in slow lifting strokes rather than a circular stir. Raspberries collapse in seconds under agitation, and the difference between preserves and jam here is entirely mechanical.
- A breakfast cupfulRoughly 8 to 10 fl oz — treat it as one standard cup. So about 1 cup of strained currant juice per 2 lb combined fruit and sugar, which works out to 1 lb raspberries plus 1 lb sugar.
- Why the currant juiceIt is the pectin and the acid. Raspberries are only moderately pectin-rich, and red currants are among the highest of any fruit. If currants are out of season, frozen ones thaw and press perfectly well; bottled currant juice or an equal quantity of tart apple juice with a tablespoon of lemon juice will stand in, though the set will be softer.
- Preserving-panA wide, heavy pan. Period preserving-pans were typically unlined copper; for modern use choose a non-reactive pan, stainless or enamelled, rather than bare aluminium. Width matters more than depth, since evaporation is what concentrates the syrup before the berries overcook.
- The overnight standNot optional. The sugar draws juice out of the berries so that a syrup exists before any heat is applied, which means the fruit poaches rather than fries against the pan. Cover and leave at cool room temperature, or refrigerate in warm weather.
- "Boil until clear"A visual cue: the syrup turns clear as it concentrates. For a modern check, setting point is around 220F / 105C at sea level, but a cold-saucer test is more reliable than a thermometer with a thin, fruit-heavy syrup like this one.
- Storage is the part to moderniseCovering warm jars and standing them in a cool dark place was normal in 1896 and left the surface open to mould and yeast. Follow current guidance instead: either process filled jars in a boiling-water bath for the time your jar size calls for, or skip sealing altogether and keep the preserve refrigerated and use it within a few weeks.
- YieldTwo pounds of raspberries with two pounds of sugar and the currant juice will fill somewhere in the region of four to six half-pint jars, depending on how far the syrup is reduced.
The equal-weights formula (a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit) is the oldest and simplest preserving ratio in English cookery, predating any understanding of pectin: sugar at that concentration is what keeps the jar. The addition of red currant juice is the professional touch. Confectioners and hotel kitchens had long used currants, unripe apples or quince as a setting agent, and commercial pectin extract, which arrived in the following decades, made the practice unnecessary at home. The warning about insects in the hollows of the berries is not fussiness -- raspberries were field-picked and washing waterlogs them, and a soak in lightly salted water was one recommended remedy.