Raspberry Preserves – The Essence of Fresh Raspberries

Raspberry Preserves – Raspberrilicious

Fresh raspberries, a little fresh lemon juice and a minimal amount of light honey. Just three ingredients cook quickly together (without added pectin) to create richly colored and intensely flavored preserves. Softly thickened, deeply burgundy essence of raspberries. These Raspberry Preserves have the perfect texture, flavor, color and fragrance. And they only take 20 minutes to cook. Truly raspberrilicious.

Take an extra 15 minutes to pack them into sterilized jars and can them in a water bath. You’ll have shelf-stable Raspberry Preserves to last (if you don’t eat them or give them all away) for a year. Just in time to harvest next year’s fresh raspberries for a new batch of  Raspberry Preserves.

Less sweet, more fruit

Years ago, when I first started making jam from the deep-purple plums outside my house, the go-to rule was equal parts by volume of fruit and sugar. Ever since that first very sweet batch, I’ve been reducing the amount of sugar. And now replace it entirely with my favorite local, light clover honey. This recipe for homemade Raspberry Preserves contains by weight six parts raspberries to one part honey. No wonder they taste of the essence of fresh raspberries.

Jam versus preserves

Unlike jams and jellies, preserves are defined as chunkier in texture than jam. That said, most people use the names interchangeably.

Thank you MB & T & Taiko
I can’t thank you both enough for sharing your abundance of raspberries with me each year. And such a treat it is to spend early mornings together in the garden harvesting these luscious berries.

Raspberry Preserves – The Essence of Fresh Raspberries

Just three ingredients cook quickly together to create these brightly colored and intensely flavored preserves. Store Raspberry Preserves in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. Or, create shelf-stable preserves by packing them into sterilized jars and canning them in a water bath. If you are new to canning, go here for introductory information and videos.

Depending on what’s in season, substitute strawberries, blackberries and/or blueberries for the raspberries in this recipe. Tarter blackberries might require a little more honey. Sweeter blueberries would require a little less.

Makes 6 cups: enough for seven ½ pint jars      Printer-Friendly Recipe.
Start to Finish: 1 hour

Ingredients

3 pounds (9 cups) fresh raspberries (or frozen and thawed)
1 ½ cups light, local honey
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Preparation

1. Put the raspberries, honey and lemon juice in a low, wide soup pot or Dutch oven.
2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook at an active boil for 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until thickened.
3. Place a small plate in the freezer to chill.
4. To test your preserves:
   1. Drop a spoonful of the hot preserves onto your cold plate. You are looking for clean edges without any clear liquid separating out.
   2. You can also run your finger through the spoonful on the plate. If you make a clear path that doesn’t fill in, then you’ve reached a jam-like consistency. Remember that without added pectin, these preserves set up more softly than with it.
5. If the raspberry preserves have not thickened to your liking, clean the plate and return it to the freezer. Continue to boil the preserves for another minute or two and test again. Repeat as necessary.
6. Turn off the heat. Ladle the raspberry preserves into sterilized jars.
7. Preserves can be stored in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Or place the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Properly canned preserves will be shelf stable for up to one year.

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