Friday, August 13, 2010

Raspberry Jam

Can I brag for a minute? Every once in a while I make a list and spend a day going to thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales, and antique stores searching for treasures. Usually I don't find anything. I'll pick up a few unique items here or there, but it's pretty rare that I find something useful. The last time I ventured out though I got three beautiful French canning jars in great condition and an unopened box of a dozen pint sized Kerr jars with pretty yellow lids! And all they needed was a thorough cleaning, a few new rubber rings and they can start a new life holding pickles and jam in my house. And all together they cost me less then you'd pay for one jar at a store today, so I'm being green and saving money, how cool is that?

Raspberry Jam 3


The point of this though is that yesterday I used up the last of the raspberries I picked a few days ago to make jam and it came out glorious! One of the things I hate the most about the store bought variety is that it's always way too sweet. I know that sugar is probably cheaper then fruit, but if I want raspberry jam, I want it to taste like raspberries, and these were amazing raspberries.

Raspberry Jam

This isn't exactly a recipe. Basically, I just mashed up and weighed all the fruit I had left, added a little less then a cup of sugar for each pound of fruit, squeezed in a couple of lemons and boiled it all with a box of no sugar needed pectin for 10 minutes. I processed the filled jars for another 10 minutes to be sure that it would last.

Raspberry Jam 2

The jam set up perfectly and tastes just like the fresh fruit. I'm already dreaming of a cold December morning, some toast, a bit of butter and this jam still tasting of summer. Sometimes it pays to plan ahead.

9 comments:

Cal said...

Beautiful!

scrambledhenfruit said...

I love the beautiful color! Homemade jam is so much better.

cocoa and coconut said...

So vibrant! I've been wanting to make some jams for a while because I bought these new beautiful jars and wanted to fill them with something delicious AND pretty :)

Laetitia said...

I'm impressed with your jam "no recipe"! Its texture looks perfect! It shows that sometimes, a good eye and instinct are the best ingredients to suceed a recipe ;-) I am a big fan of Le Parfait jars! and the good news is they still sell those old-fashioned jars for a few euros!

Unknown said...

Good job, you are starting to eye ball recipes.

Mike said...

I loved your raspberry jam recipe. If you took the photos yourself, pat yourself on the back; they're very well done. I just invented a recipe for figs and used an ingredient that ordinarily doesn't go in jam—vanilla. After I had cooked down the figs/sugar mix, I mixed in orange zest, cooked an additional 10 min. and then took off the heat and added the vanilla. Tasty stuff with a unique flavor!

Anna said...

Thank you everyone, I hope you do try the jam, it's delicious!

Laetitia, the only jars that are reasonably priced around here are Kerr or Ball, so when I found these at less then a dollar a piece, I was ecstatic. I think that my sister would have literally killed me though if I went off to look for the Le Parfait jars on our last Paris trip :D

Mike, I've made a vanilla lemon marmalade before and I agree, it's an unexpected, but quite delicious addition. I will have to give your recipe a try.

Abby said...

What a lovely series of photos! And I'm SO JEALOUS of your jars. I have a ridiculos affinity for vintage and antique glass...

Amanda @ Bakingwithoutabox.com said...

Beautiful! And congrats on such a fabulous find!