Raspberry Jam

The other day I had a big clear out of the freezer, it's been long overdue. I threw away quite a few things, mainly failed experiments that I couldn't bring myself to bin at the time. But then I did a lot of berry picking last Summer and had frozen in several ice cream boxes. So out they came and into my big pressure cooker to thaw. That took all day.



The next day I went to the supermarket bright and early and bought 1 kg of jam sugar. There was also preserving sugar, I couldn't quite work out the difference, certainly the price was almost the same, 1 penny difference there. But the packet of jam sugar said it was particularly for soft fruit that doesn't contain pectin, i. e. strawberries, raspberries etc.

I've made jam before, on two occasions, both well before I started this blog, thus they are not here. And thus nothing to refer back to. The sugar packet had some instructions and when I worked out my amounts it seems I had twice the amount of berries to the sugar I'd bought. Well, that's not a big deal, on the contrary, my Mum's been making jam with reduced amounts of sugar for years, works perfectly well.

Ingredients

2.7 l raspberries and wild strawberries
1 kg jam sugar
25 g unsalted butter
1.5 dl plum brandy liqueur

Method

1. Allow the berries to defrost completely, if frozen.


2. Place in a large saucepan and put on low heat, then add the sugar and stir in.


3. As the sugar dissolves, increase the heat little by little up to medium.


4. Bring the mixture to a boil and add the butter and stir in well.


5. Let boil for a few minutes, then add the brandy liqueur.


6. Let simmer for 20-30 minutes. In the mean time pre-heat glass jars in the oven at it's lowest setting.


7. When the jam is done, take out the jars and pour it quickly into them and close the lids tightly, then let cool before labelling up.

The reason I put the brandy liqueur in is because I'd had the bottle for ages and it didn't really taste very nice, so I thought this would be a good place to use it up. So completely optional this one.

I also made the mistake in thinking that the jam was way too watery after 25 minutes and left it simmering for a total of 50 minutes, when it had reduced to almost half. This was a mistake as it began to set extremely quickly and I just barely managed to pour it out into the jars. I got a total of 1.5 l jam.

It tasted very nice though, not extremely sweet, but had a bit of the raspberry tartness. Lundulph approved.

When I consulted my Mum, she said if the jam seems too thick, just add a bit of water. She also said this can be done even after it's been poured into the jars, it needs to be heated up first to loosen it up.