The smell of raspberry jam bubbling away takes me back to my childhood with my mam and my gran standing over a pressure cooker filled with fruit every summer holiday. It's a tradition I try to continue. While we only managed to freeze about six cups of raspberries - far too many were enjoyed with ice cream I confess, I knew I at least wanted to try and turn some of it into jam.
Jam making, at least using the more traditional recipes is a lot easier than you might think plus this recipe doesn't even call for any setting agent. It's a recipe taken from Martha Stewart - one I skipped on a couple of steps because I could never drain seeds out of raspberry jam - for me that's a no no. I like my seeds damn it. This recipe will make you one jar - handy if you want to make a small batch quickly - plus it's easy enough to double, triple up the quantities if needs be.
So to the recipe we go. You'll need;
2 1/4 cups of raspberries
1 cup and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
Zest of one large orange divided
1 1/8 of a teaspoon of lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Before you start jam making, take a saucer and place it into your freezer - you'll need it for testing your jam in a sec. Add your raspberries, sugar, salt, lemon juice and half of the orange zest into a pan and boil away. Once it reaches a roaring boil (when it really starts going for it) set a timer for 8 to 10 minutes. Make sure to keep stirring and you can even do some mashing at this point, although be careful because with such a boil it lets to spit out every so often.
Once it starts to thicken, take out your saucer from the freezer and stick a blob onto it, hold it to an angle and it should hold most of it's shape and look firm. When it reaches that point, throw in the remaining orange zest, give it a quick stir and pour into your jar. Cool it off before sticking it into the fridge.
So to the recipe we go. You'll need;
2 1/4 cups of raspberries
1 cup and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
Zest of one large orange divided
1 1/8 of a teaspoon of lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Before you start jam making, take a saucer and place it into your freezer - you'll need it for testing your jam in a sec. Add your raspberries, sugar, salt, lemon juice and half of the orange zest into a pan and boil away. Once it reaches a roaring boil (when it really starts going for it) set a timer for 8 to 10 minutes. Make sure to keep stirring and you can even do some mashing at this point, although be careful because with such a boil it lets to spit out every so often.
Once it starts to thicken, take out your saucer from the freezer and stick a blob onto it, hold it to an angle and it should hold most of it's shape and look firm. When it reaches that point, throw in the remaining orange zest, give it a quick stir and pour into your jar. Cool it off before sticking it into the fridge.
While we're talking about raspberries - if you want a great way to freeze berries of all kinds that won't make them all squishy - lay them on a freezeable tray and pop into your freezer for a couple of hours or over night. Then bag them up. They'll keep their shape and won't be all stuck together!
Now I just have issues of eating the jam straight from the jar!
How do you like your jam?
Now I just have issues of eating the jam straight from the jar!
How do you like your jam?