Earlier this year I came across a raspberry jam made with champagne to soften the seeds. I’ve made raspberry jam in the past using a standard recipe and I thought it came out fine (all my friends seemed to like it!), but it is rather ‘seedy’. I know you can work some of the fruit through a food mill or sieve to reduce the amount of seeds, but that also reduces your amount of fruit meaning you need to buy more to get to four cups (or however much your recipe calls for). And we all know, raspberries aren’t the cheapest berry you’ll buy!
So this year I thought I’d give the champagne trick a try (and it’s not hard figuring out what to do with your leftover champagne!). I had the opportunity to ask the jam maker how he added the champagne to the recipe and he adds it during the roll boil stage. But I decided to experiment a little.
My recipe called for four cups of crushed fruit and I did want to remove some seeds, so I put about half the crushed fruit through a food mill using a plate with larger holes (you just get juice otherwise). Then I added the crushed raspberries, sugar, lemon juice, bit of butter and about ½ cup of champagne to my 8 quart pot. (I did add pectin in the roll boil stage).
The results: not bad, but I think it needs more champagne! I only added ½ a cup because I didn’t want to taste champagne in the jam, but next time I’ll go closer to ¾ cup. The seeds are softer and so it’s a nicer spread, but they could use a little bit more.
I also decided to add the champagne at the beginning so the raspberries had a longer cooking time with the champagne – so more time to soften. While I can’t know either way, I think it wasn’t a bad idea.
Another great benefit – more foam! The bubbles from the champagne make a lot more foam to skim off, which I put in a little container and froze. This is another experiment – making foam candy! YUM!!
Follow-up: I got a couple comments from friends who have 'texture issues' and they said the seeds weren't as noticeable as in other jams, so maybe the 1/2 cup works okay, too!
ReplyDeleteThe raspberry jam was great Jess! While I'm not someone who mind seeds in my jam, I'd be interested to see if the 3/4 cup changes it that much and volunteer to be a tester.
ReplyDeletei have made some jam not using this recipe. for a day it was set lovely and tasted great and easy to spread. i left them in jam jarsand in 2 days time they had gone hard and wouldnt spread! they tasted exactly the same but you just couldnt spread it! i was just wondering if anybody new and solution to this problem. something that would soften the jam up again please leave a reply if you know the answer. thankyou
ReplyDeleteby the way on that third line down it was "jam jars" not "jarsand".
ReplyDeleteI'm going to guess that you tried it the same day you made it and so it was spreading okay. Then you maybe put it in the fridge and it set as it normally would. So my guess is you roll boiled it too long and it set that hard. If you used a standard recipe that would be my thought. I posted another blog entry here, "Will it Set?" that has tips on when to know you've gelled and to take your product off the heat. Generally, when it sheets the spoon you're done - this takes about 1 - 2 minutes using pectin recipes. Hope that helps!
ReplyDeleteWhat does "sheets the spoon" mean
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