Raspberry jam is wonderful but easily develops a "cooked" taste that detracts from the brightness of the berries. To minimize that, this recipe boils off water before adding sugar (which would increase cooking temperature and flavour loss) and pre-heats the sugar to reduce the amount of time bringing the batch back up to temperature after adding it. Raspberries also have lots of seeds that can dominate the jam, so this recipe removes some of them while keeping enough to retain the character.
Ingredients
For 3 pints
- 1000 g raspberries
- 800 g sugar
- 2 tbs lemon juice
- 1/2 package pectin (optional)
Steps
- Preheat an oven to 215 °F.
- Put the sugar in the oven and warm to the oven's temperature, at least 1 hour.
- Fill a canning kettle with water to the appropriate level and bring to boil. Reduce heat and keep ready at the boil until the jam is ready. Sterilize canning jars and lids.
- Run half the raspberries through the fine plate of a food mill to remove seeds. Discard the seeds.
- Put the raspberry purée and unmilled raspberries in a pot with at least three times the capacity of the batch.
- Bring batch to a boil. Keep at the boil, stirring occasionally, until the the volume drops somewhat, mixture starts to thicken, and temperature reads 215 °F.
- Add the sugar to the raspberries, stir in to dissolve, and return to the boil.
- Add the lemon juice and pectin.
- Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until mixture reaches the jellying point, around 221 °F.
- Can and seal jars in canning kettle 10 minutes.