Mr Radcliffe's Preserves: Jams & Jellies

Redcurrants  Gooseberries  Blackcurrants 

Mr Radcliffe's Preserves

Jams & Jellies

Preserves Home

Recipes

Jelly 2004

Jam 2004

Jelly 2005

Jelly 2007

Jam 2005

Jam 2006

Jam 2007

 

Jam 2010

Jam making started with fruit from pick your own farms. We used to get plums and damsons on our way back from Bromyard Festival in September and produce jam and wine. The availability of fruit from the Sherborne Avenue garden in the early 90s led to raspberry jam and some strawberry.

Now in Barton with a large fruit cage we produce raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and some strawberries, all of which are used for jam. The favourite is raspberry with redcurrant jelly now also very popular.

I did a trawl through the jam cupboard, to see what was there, when starting this page in early 2003. As you can see the plum does not appear too popular although I find the '87 still quite tasty.

  • 1987 Plum
  • 1988 Plum
  • 1991 Plum, Damson
  • 1997 Plum
  • 1999 Raspberry, Strawberry
  • 2000 Raspberry, Blackcurrant,
  • 2001 Raspberry, Blackcurrant, Gooseberry, Redcurrant Jelly
  • 2002 Raspberry, Redcurrant Jelly, Blackcurrant Jelly

Jams

2001

Raspberry

Bulletin 21 Recipe 19 used.

Probably two batches made.

Blackcurrant

Bulletin 21 Recipe 8 used.

8lbs of fruit.

Gooseberry

Bulletin 21 Recipe 12 used.

7.7 lbs of fruit.

2002

Three batches of Raspberry jam were made all to jam recipe 19 of Bulletin 21

Summer Raspberry Bulletin 21 recipe 19

A small batch of raspberry jam was made just before the end of June using Summer Raspberries. (Malling Jewel) The flavour was superb. Only lightly set.

Autumn Raspberry (Ripe)Bulletin 21 recipe 19

About 6lbs of ripe fruit were used. It had to be boiled more than normal to produce a set and was darker than usual but still good.

Autumn Raspberry Bulletin 21 recipe 19

About 6lbs of fruit were used. A good batch.

2003

Redcurrant Jam

I couldn't find a Redcurrant Jam recipe so ended up adapting the Blackcurrant one

  • 4lb Redcurrants
  • 4lb Sugar
  • 2 pints of water
Fruit simmering
The amount of water should be reduced - lots of reduction required before adding sugar. Boiled for > 1 hour after the sugar added. Rather dark. Quite a lot of scum produced. Completed jam

Summer Raspberry Bulletin 21 recipe 19

4lb 3 oz of ripish fruit. 4lb 3 oz of sugar.

. Fruit Simmering
Heated for 20 minutes. Warmed sugar in, stirred and boiled for 20 minutes Completed Jam

2004

Raspberry Jam

I made three good batches this year, two of Summer and one of Autumn, to the usual recipe.

The first batch on 25.June used 3.58kg (7.14lb) of fruit and gave 21 smallish jars.

The second on the 28th of June used 3.95kg (8lb 11oz) of fruit and gave 18 jars.

The Autumn batch was made on 15th September.2.72kg (6lb) of rather ripe fruit gave 12 jars.

2005

Raspberry Jam

We made three batches this year using Summer Raspberries.

The first, on July 3rd, was a double batch using two pans and 17lbs of fruit to the usual recipe. It turned out a bit runny but gave 35 jars and tasted great.

James and Kate helped with a batch on 9th July. They did a great job. 3 kg of raspberries and 3 kg of sugar gave 14 jars. Set well.

Strawberry Jam

We made a couple of  small batches this year to recipe 24. In spite of the small batch sizes the juice of two lemons was used and setting was not a problem.

4 July 1.956 kg (4.3 lbs) strawberries. Boiled to dark colour. 6 jars Set well looks correct colour when set.

15 July 1.58 kg 5.5 jars Set well good colour

2006

Strawberry Jam

July 1st. Kate made the first batch using 2kg of fruit to recipe 24. Made 8 jars.

I made another with 2.4kg of fruit giving 9.5 jars but didn't set well. Some of fruit was over ripe.

Raspberry Jam

2 July Kate and I made a batch to the usual recipe using 2.8kg of fruit. 12 jars.

5 July Another batch of Raspberry using 2.6kg of fruit. Well boiled. Sample on cold plate did not move when tilted vertically! 11 jars.

2007

Raspberry Jam

24th June 2.75kg of summer raspberries to usual recipe made 12 jars of jam.

7th July 3.2kg of summer raspberries. Kate made 15 jars of jam.

Not enough strawberries this year for jam.

27 Aug 1.5kg Autumn Raspberries. 7 jars jam.

9 September. 2.4kg Autumn Raspberries made 11 (biggish) pots of jam. Fruit rather ripe so boiled for about 30mins. Rich colour and good flavour.

 

2009

Strawberry Jam

1.9kg of Strawberries, recipe 24 as usual. Boiled a little too long because it didn't seem to be setting. 7.5 jars.

Mirabelle Jam

3.4kg fruit Recipe First try. Looks good. 12 jars

2010

Strawberry Jam

26th June. First decent punnet of Strawberries. 930gm made 4 small jars to usual recipe.

Blackcurrant Jam. Normal batch size. About 12 jars.

2011

16 July Mirabelle Jam

Tree just ripening. James picked the fruit.

3km fruit following recipe . Made 11 jars. Managed to get most of stones out. Set well and looks good.

17 July Blackcurrant Jam. Only 1.4kgm Normal recipe. 8 jars plus 2 small. More than expected.

 

September 2011 Blackberry and Apple Jam

Lots of blackberries so tried a new recipe from Ruth. recipe

Came out well.

2012

22nd July 2012 Raspberry Jam from Frozen

The raspberry crop not being good and the freezer still having old fruit, tried some jam from frozen berries.

A bag of 2006 and one of 2008, coming to 2.2kgm, (including ice) were melted in three pans and then cooked normally in one. The usual recipe was followed except the juice of 1 lemon was added because of the probability that the pectin had deteriorated over time.

30th September Raspberry Jam - mixed fresh and frozen.

2.5 lbs of fresh Autumn raspberries, together with frozen bags of 2006 and 2008 Summer Raspberries. Another 3.5lbs but included quite a lot of frost in the older bag. Made as usual assuming 6.5lbs of fruit. Set well, tastes good. 13 jars, half small ones.

2014 23rd May Jetlag Strawberry Jam.

1.1kg of strawberries plus juice of 1.5 lemons - about 1/3 normal batch - made 4 .5 small jars.

5 June Another batch of Strawberry. 1.4kg of fruit, juice of 2 lemons to aid setting. Made 5 pots, 2 normal size 3 small.

July 20th/21st Mirabellum Jam.

Picked some fruit previous Tuesday which turned out to not be very ripe. Added more on Saturday to make 3.6kgm of fruit.

Stones difficult get get out because fruit wasn't as ripe as usual. Forgot to reduce fruit before adding sugar. Also left until next day after sugar.

Seemed to turn out well. 11 jars.

2015

2nd June Strawberry jam. 1.3 kg fruit usual receipe. Took long time to reach setting oint. 4.5 jars Tastes very good.

15th June Strawberry jam. 4.5kg of fruit. Had to use two pans for final boil. 16 jars. Long boil again. Excellent taste.

 

2016

20th June 1.13kgm fruit (2.5lb) to usual receipe. 4 and 1/3 small jars

3 July 0.9kg fruit (2lb) 3 3/4 small jars. Flavour good.

2017

Blackcurrant 1 July. Stripped most of two bushes. Big bowl of fruit - 2.28kgm. 3.42 kgm of sugar made 11 pots.

Raspberry 3rd July Not many raspberries this year because of new planting. Mixed some from freezer '15 and a few fresh. 2kgm fruit. Made 7 1/2 jars.

Mirabellum 6th July Lots of fruit this year. Picked when some were a bit green. Large bowl was 3kgm of fruit. Stoned with German plum stoner for the first time, which reduced the volume slightly. Stones put in muslin badg and boiled with fruit. 13 1/2 jars.

 

 

2018 6 July Raspberry Jam

1.35kg of fruit, half new picking, half from freezer. 61/2 jars of good tasting jam

15th July Redcurrant Jam.

Decided to make jam rather than jelly.

1.47 kg of fruit. Same amount of sugar. 6 jars Tasted good.

2019

3 June Strawberry Jam.

Good strawberries this year. About 3 pounds of fruit. 6 small jars.

23 June Strawberry Jam - batch2

1.493km of fruit. Left it too long without stirring and burnt on bottom of pan. Reduced for too long and it came out more like bioled sweets than jam. 6 small jars.

2020

19th June Strawberry Jam

About 900gm of fruit gave 4.5 smallish jars. Not much boiling required and it set well. However the half jar don't seem to taste of very much. Certainly not as full of flavour as last years.

29th June Rhubarb and Gooseberry to Janice's recipe

She said :- 'I kind of made it up. 2kg of fruit with 2kg of sugar and some lemon juice.'

I used 713gm of Gooseberrys, 796gm of Rhubarb (1509gm in total), en equal amount of sugar and the juice of half a lemon.

Rhubarb chopped up fine. Boiled up and set well. 6.7 medium sized jars.

1st July Raspberry Jam

Two batches of raspberries separated by two days gave 2.76kg of fruit.

Made 10.5 jars of very fine jam. Tastes wonderful.

7th July Blackcurrent.

Stripped all the blackcurrent bushes. Only 1.69kg of fruit but gave 9 jars, much as expected. Tasted good.

No mirabellam this year. Parts of tree dying too.

2021

3rd July Strawberry Jam - Minute amount of jam made 351gm of fruit gave 1.5 small jars. Might not get any more strawberries this year.

2022

2nd June Strawberry Jam, 3 small jars

14th June Strawberry Jam. Mixture of greenhouse and outside strawberries. Only two small jars.

2nd July Raspberry Jam. 2.4 kilos fruit, equal mix of fresh and 2020 frozen. 9 jars, set well, very good flavour.

6th July Blackcurrent jam, stripped all the blackcurrents, 2.4kg, made 10 jars of tasty jam.

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Jelly

2001

I resisted jelly making for many years having believed it was too much trouble. I yielded in 2001 with some redcurrant jelly, which was certainly a lot of trouble but was superb. I used recipe 13 from Bulletin 21 [1] It came out rather runny but this may have been because the fruit was over ripe.

2002

Redcurrant jelly

Flushed by the success in 2001 two batches of redcurrant jelly were made.

Batch1 used recipe 13. 5lb of fruit gave 5¾ pint of juice after two boils and 5.6lb of sugar was added. It set well and quickly, probably because the fruit was not too ripe.

Batch 2 seems to have used recipe 12 where there is only one boil, no added water and less juice is produced. 5½ lbs of fruit gave 3½ pints of juice and 4.4lb sugar was added. Again a good quick set.

Blackcurrant Jelly

Most of the blackcurrant crop went into jelly. There were two pans each half full of fruit. Recipe 12 was used with an extra ¾ pint of water per pan. 6 pints of juice were produced and 3kgm (6.6 lbs) of sugar was added. The jelly set very quickly and looked good but the flavour was much too concentrated. More water was needed and recipe 4 (as 13 but more water) should have been used.

2003

Redcurrant Jelly

I intended to use Recipe 12 again but added water by mistake. So the recipe is a mixture between 12 and 13.

  • Nearly 7lb of fruit (including stalks)
  • 2 pints of water
  • Boiled for over an hour to reduce the liquid
  • Mashed and strained to give 4 pints of juice
  • 4 lbs of sugar added and boiled quickly for 15 mins
Fruit & Stalks Simmering

The juice was very dark and a thin layer of scum quickly formed. Yield 11 small jars about 8 lbs. The jelly turned out a reasonable colour, not too dark.

Completed Jelly

2004

Redcurrant Jelly

I made quite a big batch on the 1st of July to recipe 12. 3.68kg of fruit gave 1650ml of juice. I added 1.65kgm of sugar but it was hard to dissolve, so an extra 300ml of water was added.

2005

Redcurrant Jelly

Made the usual batch of jelly but decided on a recipe which gave the advantages of recipe 13 without the hassle of boiling for a second time. So having boiled the fruit up as recipe 12 and mashed and strained it, I slowly added a pint of boiling water to the mashed up fruit in the bag and mashed it a bit more. Then added sugar as usual and finished off as normal. It came out fine. I call this recipe 12A

 

2007

Redcurrant Jelly (about 29th July)

3.1kgm of fruit to recipe 12A. 650cc of boiling water added and gave 2500cc of juice. Was only boiled for one minute but should have been longer because the jelly was not a well set as usual. (Fruit was quite ripe). 11 jars plus one scum jar.

2012

Redcurrent Jelly 22 July

4lbs of fruit to recipe 12A. 1.5l of juice. Boiled for about 10 minutes. Made 9 jars three v. small.

Looks good, set well and tastes good.

2013 Redcurrent Jelly 11th July

Full bowl of fruit just ripened, recipe 12A mashed with an extra 3/4 pint hot water made 1.75l of juice.

9 mixed size jars.

2014 Redcurrent Jelly. 2nd July. Nearly full bowl of fruit, rec 12a, mashed with extra 1pt water, (maybe a little too much)

Set reasonably well, 9 smallish jars.

2016 Redcurrent Jelly. 2 July. Half batch. 1.628kgm (3.38lb) fruit. Recipe 12A. 5 1/2 smallish jars. Set well as usual. good flavour.

2017 Redcurrent Jelly 26th June Bowl of fruit gave 2lt of juice. Made 10 1/2 jars.

 

2019 Redcurrent Jelly

Fourth July Usual big bowl of fruit. Usual recipe 12A. 1.55kgm sugar. Made 7 jars of well set jelly.

2021 Redcurrent Jelly

19th July 2.07kg of fruit, Usual recipe 12A. 12oz of water made 1250cl of juice made 6 jars, set well.

2022 Redcurrent Jelly

30th June

Over half a bowl of fruit, Did not add any extra water. 900cc of juice, made 5 small jars. Set very well.


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