Raspberry Jam

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide, heavy-bottomed preserving pan or large saucepan
• •Three 250ml jars with lids
• •Wooden spoon
• •Ladle and jam funnel
• •Small saucer for the set test

Instructions

1. 1

   Sterilise the jars

   Wash three 250ml jars and their lids in hot soapy water. Rinse them and put them, still wet, into a low oven at 120C to dry out and warm through. Leave them there until you need them. Hot jam goes into hot jars. Cold jars crack, and you'll have ruined a good morning.

   Put a small saucer in the freezer at the same time. You'll use it to test the set later.
2. 2

   Warm the fruit and sugar

   Tip the raspberries into a wide, heavy-bottomed pan. A preserving pan if you have one, otherwise the biggest saucepan in the cupboard. Add the sugar and the lemon juice. Set the pan over a low heat and stir gently with a wooden spoon until the sugar dissolves entirely. You'll feel it on the bottom of the pan: gritty at first, then smooth. Don't rush this. If you boil the jam before the sugar has dissolved, it will crystallise and you'll be cross with yourself.

3. 3

   Bring to a rolling boil

   Once the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat up. The jam should come to a proper rolling boil, the kind that doesn't stop when you stir it. The colour will deepen to a darker, glossier red and the kitchen will start to smell of warm raspberries and something just shy of toffee. This is the smell of July, even if it's October and you're using frozen fruit. No shame in that. Skim off any pink foam that gathers at the edges with a spoon. Or don't. It disappears as the jam cools.

   A knob of butter stirred in at the end helps the foam dissolve. An old trick, and it works.
4. 4

   Test for the set

   After about eight to ten minutes of vigorous boiling, take the pan off the heat and spoon a little jam onto your cold saucer from the freezer. Wait half a minute, then push it gently with your fingertip. If the surface wrinkles, it's ready. If it slides about looking like syrup, put the pan back on the heat for another two minutes and test again. Raspberries are high in pectin, so this rarely takes long. Trust the wrinkle. It tells you everything.

   Remember to take the pan off the heat while you test, otherwise the jam keeps cooking and you'll overshoot. A jam that's too set is a sad thing.
5. 5

   Jar and seal

   Let the jam settle in the pan for two or three minutes. This stops the fruit floating to the top of the jars. Take your warm jars from the oven, set them on a wooden board, and ladle the jam in carefully, using a jug or a wide funnel if you have one. Fill them almost to the top. Wipe the rims clean with a damp cloth, screw the lids on firmly, and leave them to cool on the counter. You'll hear the lids ping as they seal. There are few better sounds in a kitchen.

Chef Tips

• •The fruit decides. Use raspberries at their peak, ripe and fragrant, ideally picked or bought the same day. A jam made from tired berries will taste tired. If you can't get good fresh ones, frozen raspberries make excellent jam and there's no shame in it. Out of season, they're often better than the fresh ones flown in from the other side of the world.
• •Jam sugar with added pectin makes life easier and gives you a reliable set, but raspberries have enough natural pectin that ordinary granulated sugar works too. The lemon juice helps. If you use plain sugar, expect a slightly looser, more spoonable jam, which is, in my view, a better jam anyway.
• •Don't overfill the pan. Jam needs room to boil hard without climbing over the sides. A wide pan, half full, is what you want. A narrow pan crammed to the brim is how kitchens get sticky.
• •A properly sealed jar of raspberry jam keeps for a year in a cool cupboard. Once opened, into the fridge with it, and use within a month. Spoon it onto toast, into porridge, between layers of a sponge cake, or simply onto a teaspoon on your way past the fridge.

Advance Preparation

• •The jam keeps for up to a year in sealed, sterilised jars stored somewhere cool and dark. Once opened, refrigerate and use within four weeks.
• •If you're making jam for gifts, label the jars with the date. A jar of raspberry jam made in July and given at Christmas is the kind of present that means more than it should.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 20g)