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Raspberry Jam
To five or six pounds of fine red raspberries (not too ripe) add an equal quanity of the finest quality of white sugar. Mash the whole well in a preserving kettle; add about one quart of currant juice (a little less will do ) , and boil gently until it jellies upon a cold plate; then put into small jars; cover with brandied paper, and tie a thick white paper over them. Keep in a dark, dry , and cool place.
A straightforward equal-weights preserve, thickened with currant juice rather than commercial pectin. The instructions are sound; only the sealing method needs replacing.
- Why slightly underripe fruit"Not too ripe" is deliberate. Raspberries lose pectin and acid as they soften, and this recipe relies entirely on the fruit for set. Firm, just-ripe berries with a few underripe ones among them give the best chance of a jelly.
- The currant juice is the setting agentRed currants are among the most pectin-rich fruits, and a quart of their juice is what turns a soupy raspberry syrup into jam. If currants are unavailable, the proportions will not behave as written; expect a loose preserve or plan on commercial pectin and its own instructions.
- Equal quantitiesSugar equal to the fruit by weight, so 5-6 lb of sugar for 5-6 lb of berries. That very high ratio is what makes the finished jam keep; reducing it changes the preservation, not just the sweetness.
- Preserving kettleTypically a wide, heavy copper or brass pan in nineteenth-century kitchens. Any wide heavy-bottomed non-reactive pot works. Width matters more than depth, since evaporation does much of the work.
- The cold plate testChill two or three saucers in the freezer first. Drop a teaspoon of jam on one, wait half a minute, and push it with a fingertip; it should wrinkle rather than flood back. Take the pan off the heat while testing or you will overshoot.
- "Boil gently" means skim"Boil gently" -- a gentle rolling boil, stirred often as it thickens. The recipe says nothing about skimming, though skimming the foam was usual practice in period preserving. Raspberry jam scorches easily once it starts to set, and burnt sugar cannot be rescued out of it.
- Brandied paper is not a sealA disc of paper soaked in brandy laid on the hot surface, with a paper cover tied over the top, was the standard nineteenth-century closure. It discourages surface mould but does not exclude air. Use sterilised jars with two-piece lids and follow current water-bath processing times for jam, or keep the finished jars in the refrigerator.
- YieldHard to predict, but with 5-6 lb each of fruit and sugar plus a quart of currant juice, expect roughly 6 to 8 pints, depending on how far you reduce it.
Raspberry and currant were paired long before pectin was isolated as a substance: raspberries alone tend to make a runny preserve, while currants will make almost anything jell, so the two often went into the kettle together. This is a preserve for a household with a garden, written when a summer's fruit had to be captured in a week or two and then stored somewhere dark and cool to last the year, hence the closing instruction, which is as much a part of the recipe as the boiling. The brandied paper cover belongs to the same world; brandy on the surface of a jam pot was a common mould deterrent in English and North American housekeeping books through the nineteenth century.