Turnip's Raspberry Jam
It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that Turnip Fitzhugh, hero of The Mischief of the Mistletoe, has something of a sweet tooth. Turnip may not be so keen on mince pie, but he has a distinct taste for raspberry jam (both as comestible and metaphor).
There’s a bit of art/life confluence here. After a bout of berry picking, I tried my hand at jam making while I was writing The Mischief of the Mistletoe last summer. There were several “the jelly won’t jell!” incidents, one dramatic boil-over, three nasty blisters, and many botched batches, but, in the end, I managed to produce something vaguely resembling raspberry jam.
Here, for your culinary pleasure, is Turnip’s Wild Raspberry Jam:
8 cups wild raspberries
1 apple, peeled, cored, and diced.
1 cup sugar (may add more depending on personal taste)
Remove bugs and twigs from berries. Finely dice apple (in case you’re curious, the apple provides the pectin). Combine raspberries, apple, and sugar in medium sized saucepan. (Optional: you can lightly crush the berries with a potato masher. Good for getting out aggressions, may or may not do anything for the jam.) Bring to a boil. Continue to boil, stirring frequently, for thirty minutes or until mixture appears sufficiently gooey. Pour into prepared mason jars. Yield: two 16 ounce jars.
Works well spread on toast, served over vanilla ice cream, or eaten straight out of the jar with a spoon while stressing out over book deadline.
I’ll save the Christmas pudding recipes for autumn….
Does anyone else have any good jam recipes to share?
My friend’s mom makes homemade jelly! they own a little business. They also make doughnuts and cider. Yum. Her jelly is to DIE for. I should try to make my own. ^.^
Ginger pear preserves is my favorite of the jams I’ve made in the last year.
5 1/2 cups chopped, cored, peeled pears
2 1/3 cups sugar
1 T grated ginger
Zest and juice of 3 limes
Bring all ingredients to a boil over medium heat. Boil, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens (about 15 minutes). Makes about seven 8-ounce jars.
That sounds lovely! Is there any particular sort of pear I should use?
In my high school years, we lived across from some woods. This was during the “back to nature movement of the late 70’s. I got it into my head to make huckleberry “jelly” but it didn’t jell no matter how much pectin I used. IT did however make absolutely FANTASTIC syrup on pancakes and waffles. yum.
As to Christmas puddings:
I’ll get you a recipe for steamed cranberry pudding with hard sauce that is absolutely to die for. mmmmm
I can’t recall the actual recipe, but when I was a kid we spent a few summers in Connecticut where my mom made the tastiest peach-blueberry jam (from peaches and blueberries that we’d picked, of course). I think she used an equal amount of peaches and blueberries. They are a super yummy combination. (Though I’m sure Turnip would think it was all too complicated, eh, what.)
Now I want some.