Raspberry Jam

Raspberries arrived at the market yesterday in such ridiculous quantity that I bought far more than any sensible person needs. Two punnets to eat with cream, and the rest, glistening and almost too soft to carry home, for jam.

Raspberry jam is the easiest preserve there is. The fruit is high in pectin, which is the thing that makes jam set, so you don't need to fuss with sachets or test endlessly or hope for the best. You warm the fruit with sugar and lemon, you boil it hard for ten minutes, you put it in jars. That's the whole thing. We're only making jam.

This is the kind of cooking I like best in summer: fast, generous, and ending with a row of jars on the counter that will see you through to spring. A good raspberry jam tastes of the day it was made. You can spoon it onto toast in February and remember exactly what the kitchen smelled like, the heat through the window, the bowl of berries you couldn't quite finish.

I wrote it in the notebook on Saturday: raspberries, sugar, lemon, ten minutes. That's all there is to know.