Our good neighbours, Dany and Serge, arrived back from Normandy last week with a present for us of lots of frozen raspberries picked from their own garden.
What riches !
During the week I have made a Clafoutis of Raspberries, some excellent Raspberry sauce to go with a Marquise of Chocolate and today I decided the time had come to make some raspberry jam.
Not just any raspberry jam.
In the early seventies when Sile and I were just married we had worked for a while in a little Chateau (read Manor House ) in the Loire owned by the Count and Countess de Bernard, it was called the Chateau de Teildras.
There, on those welcome days when the chef was off, Madame la Countess would come into the kitchen to make her specialities.
One of them was her Raspberry Jam.
Madame’s refinement in this was that she used to sieve the fruit, thereby removing the discomfort of the half hour of picking out of seeds after each application.
To facilitate this sieving I have a trick I use myself.
I give the Raspberries a little whizz in the food processor to make it easier to push through the sieve.
Then I sieve the fruit through my finest sieve and weigh the resulting puree.
(NB you will not get rid of all the pips, some will creep through the net)
To this I add the juice of a lemon and 750g of Jam sugar to every kilo of puree obtained.
This I boil hard for about 5 minutes, but then because I have sieved off the pips which contain most of the pectin, I test for setting on a cold saucer in the old fashioned way. (if it wrinkles, when pushed with a finger, it will set.)
I find that even with the pectin sugar this jam can take an extra minute or two boiling.
The colours of this jam cooking are beautiful.
It goes from scarlet when a puree…..
To deep crimson as it boils.
The finished product.
In honour of Madame I call it (Confiture) Framboise Teildras.
Being at heart a frugal cook I can’t bear to discard the pips but have macerated them in alcohol.
In a years time I may have some delicious Raspberry Liqueur , or something undrinkable.
I will tell you then.
Comments
Petra
on August 19, 2010If it’s undrinkable, invite ME.
Martin
on August 20, 2010You and Mr. Moore are now officially invited to the unstoppering in Autumn 2011.
Petra
on August 20, 2010Yaheeey!!
Martin
on August 20, 2010I just took the lid off to see how it was going and the smell of raspberries would knock you !
I think we may be on to something here.
Mary Pawle
on August 21, 2010Hey Martin, I made some semi-pipless raspberry jam too and have just done the same with my first pickings of blackberries (much better this year). This is sort of a blackberry butter. Now as for those pips… Just looking you up, Tim Booth told me about your Languedoc connection. Ivan and I visit the area regularly. Hope you are well and thriving, the photos certainly give that impression. Marymac
Martin
on August 22, 2010Well well well, Jove must be at home again as Marymac has returned.
The blackas out here are a disgrace Mary so why don’t you make a liqueur out of Kenmare Blackberry pips and we can compare and contrast on the terrace here next year.
(The wine list is superb btw, even a Picpoul, Bravo!)
Clementine Baumann de bernard
on July 11, 2011Just read, your little story about my grandmother… You can’t imagine how it touched me.
Thank you so much
Clémentine
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