Confiture de Framboise Rouge

It has been a good year for raspberries.  

The berry patch adjacent to the garden has been on the decline and is likely to be sentenced to death and removal next year.  On the other hand the opposite berry patch on the western edge of the yard has had a stellar year.  An altogether excellent result considering the benign neglect.

Composed of a mixture of ever-bearing and ordinary raspberry plants we enjoyed a steady yet small continuous harvest augmented with a bumper summer and autumn harvest.  

Fresh, homegrown berries are a real treat considering the exorbitant prices for fresh berries you'll find in the grocery.  Grown in Peru - or some other far-flung location - they are an improvement in our standard of dietary living but at $3.74 for a half-pint they are indeed a luxury.  Stepping outside to fetch a bowl of berries for breakfast oatmeal or yogurt, a dish of ice cream or nestled in a crepe is backyard homesteading at its finest. 

Those berries not picked and eaten immediately or scavenged by the birds were cleaned, flash-frozen and stored in the garage freezer.  Two big storage bags of them.  With berry picking over for the season I fetched half of the frozen berry bonanza - amounting to a heaping eight cups of fruit goodness.  

Homemade raspberry jam was on the agenda.

Ingredients

8 - Cups of fresh or frozen red raspberries

2 - T of lemon juice  

7 - Cups of cane sugar

1 - Pouch of SURE-JELL CERTO® Premium Liquid Fruit Pectin
 
A bunch of sterilized half-pint jars with matching lids and bands

Directions

Thaw the frozen berries in a large colander in your sink.   

Move them to a pot and slowly raise the heat on them.  As they begin to soften add the lemon juice and using a potato masher pulverize and smash them into a soupy mixture.

Add the sugar and raise the heat to high - stirring constantly.  Bring the mixture to a rolling boil.  Stir-in the liquid pectin and return to a rolling boil for one minute.  

Remove the pot from the heat and using a spoon remove any foam from the surface.

Ladle immediately into hot, sterilized jars leaving about a quarter inch of head space.  Wipe anything from the glass rim or threads, top with a lid and band and screw it down tight.  Move the filled jars to a canner and pasteurize in a boiling water bath for ten minutes.

Remove to cool and when the lids ‘pop’ your jars of jam are properly sealed.  If a lid springs-back refrigerate and use immediately.

Properly sealed jars can be stored in a cool dark place for a couple of years.  Although that would be a low probability event around here. 

This jam is pretty darn good stuff.  Remarkably, it is pleasingly tart considering all of the sugar in the recipe.  It’s also easy-enough for a kitchen novice to perform admirably.   

Yield is 10-12 half-pint jars.

Pro Tip - Liquid pectin is added after the ingredients are brought to a boil. 

 *A word about the jars and lids.  Cleanliness is next to Godliness.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle.  Lids are easy - heat a Pyrex measuring cup of water to a boil in the microwave and drop the lids in the hot water to sanitize them.  Fish them out with a tongs.