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Raspberry Jam
Make by itself, or, better, combined with currants in the proportion of one-third currants to two-thirds raspberries; mash the fruit well, and proceed as in currant jam.
Make blackberry jam like raspberry, except that it should not be mixed with currants.
Strawberry jam is made exactly like blackberry.
This entry is a cross-reference as much as a recipe: it assumes you have already read the currant jam directions a few lines above, which in books of this period mean equal weights of fruit and sugar, cooked down with stirring until thick. The points below fill in what the original leaves to the reader's judgment.
- The proportion, made concreteTwo-thirds raspberries to one-third currants — say 2 lb raspberries to 1 lb currants; the original does not say whether it means weight or volume. Both go in whole, stems removed, and the currants are not strained; the seeds and skins stay in a jam.
- SugarThe standard nineteenth-century jam ratio behind "proceed as in currant jam" is a pound of sugar to a pound of prepared fruit. Modern palates often cut this to 3/4 lb per pound, which sets slightly softer and keeps less well.
- Why currants are addedRed currants are very high in pectin and acid; raspberries are moderate in both, so the one-third currant addition helps the jam set. The original gives no reason why blackberries and strawberries should not be mixed with them.
- Blackberry and strawberryStrawberry is low in pectin and will cook for a long time without setting; blackberry is moderate at best. Expect a loose, syrupy preserve if you follow this route literally; commercial pectin or added lemon juice is the modern fix.
- Cooking time and the setNo time is given because none can be. Cook at a full rolling boil, stirring often to prevent scorching, until the mixture sheets off a cold spoon or reaches 220F on a thermometer — usually 15 to 30 minutes depending on the pan and the batch size.
- The pan mattersUse the widest heavy pan you have, unlined copper or stainless, filled no more than a third deep. Depth slows evaporation and forces you to overcook the fruit to reach a set, which is where the bright raspberry flavour goes.
- StorageThe original says nothing about sealing or storage, and would have relied on the sugar concentration alone. For shelf-stable storage today, process filled half-pint jars in a boiling water bath; otherwise refrigerate and use within a month.
The Dixie Cook Book, compiled in the 1880s from the same editorial stable that produced the Buckeye books, is terse in its preserving chapter, so a great many entries are shorthand of this kind; make it like the last one, with these changes. The currant-and-raspberry pairing it recommends was a standing trick of home preserving long before pectin was sold in packets: cooks knew from experience that currants made other fruits jell, and red currant juice is often said to have been added to raspberry, cherry and strawberry preserves for that reason. Currants were a fixture of American kitchen gardens through the nineteenth century and largely disappeared from them in the twentieth, when federal and state programs restricted Ribes cultivation because the plants host white pine blister rust; which is why a recipe that once assumed currants were on hand now reads as slightly exotic.