I would say that my grandmother Ruth's most popular request was for her Black Raspberry Jam. My brother and I would typically each receive at least two jars of the jam every Christmas that we would savor as long as possible. If my goal is to learn how to make her famous Jam Cake, I first needed to master one of the main ingredients.
Since it's February and black raspberries are hard to come by in Northern Kentucky this time of year, I picked up some fresh blackberries instead. My grandmother's recommendation was that the best amount of jam to make at one time is four cups so that is what I would do; four cups of blackberries and four cups of sugar. Seems easy enough. I dump the ingredients in my pot and wait for the boiling to begin.
After about five minutes, the blackberries and sugar had sufficiently blended together to settle down into the pan. However, as the boiling picked up, the mixture became extremely foamy and airy and I realized that I may not have selected a large enough pot. That, or I needed to turn the temp down to reduce the boiling. I had to take the berries off of the heat a few times to keep it from boiling over. The recipe that I have simply said to "cook until done". Well, that was easier "said" than "done". It's deceiving how long the berries need to cook because once removed from the heat, the mixture will thicken up considerably. I ended up cooking for about an hour, which turned out to be a bit too long and the jam was too thick and stuck to my spoon. To attempt to remedy this, I added about a quarter cup of water to the pot after I removed it from the heat but it still retained a bit of a burnt sugar taste.
Lessons learned:
1. When making jam, cook on the lowest setting that will still retain the boil.
2. When making jam, do not think that you can go sit down and watch TV while the fruit boils.
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