Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Raspberry Orange Conserve


Every year, we put up numerous jars of Raspberry Jam to last us through the winter.  And every year, we run out.  We love jam.  We eat it on toast, on biscuits, on scones.  We add it to cookies, slather it on crumpets and pair it with peanut butter.  We are, in fact, jam snobs.

Raspberry jam is our favorite, although Blackberry jam and Huckleberry jam rank high on our list.  This year, I decided to try my hand at another variety of preserved berry goodness. I made Raspberry Orange Conserve.  The main difference between jam (preserves) and conserves is the number of fruits used.  Jams are made with only one variety of fruit at a time and conserves are two or more fruits combined.  In order to stretch out our Raspberry jam (hopefully to make it last until next summer), I decided to transform our simple Raspberry jam into a decadent Raspberry Orange conserve.

A portion of our bounty


After making a  number of batches of basic Raspberry jam (to appease those of us who like the simpler things in life), I decided to try my hand at something new.  Looking through numerous canning cookbooks, I failed to come up with a recipe that exactly suited my tastes, so I decided to use a basic recipe and tailor it to ingredients I had on hand.  The results were spectacular!  Wow!  Raspberry with the tang of orange is a perfect combination.  To add even more interest, I added a handful of walnuts to the conserve, making it wonderfully suited for scones and biscuits.

Oh, now I'm thinking of all kinds of other combinations - Cranberry/Orange, Blackberry/Huckleberry - this could be fun!

Raspberry Orange Conserve
4 C raspberries (washed & crushed)
2 C orange pulp (peel, discard peel and pith, liquefy in a blender)
1 box pectin (or 6 T bulk pectin)
8 1/2 C sugar
1/4 C nut meats (optional)

Measure the raspberries and orange pulp into large pot.  Add the pectin and stir well.  Begin heating berries on medium/high heat, stirring frequently.  Bring to a rolling boil (cannot stir down boil) and add sugar all at once.  Stir until sugar dissolves and bring mixture back up to a rolling boil, stirring constantly, add nut meats.  Boil for 2 minutes.  Ladle into sterilized canning jar, cap off and process for 10 minutes in a water bath.

The raspberries crushed and ready to go
Orange sections
After the blender
Orange commingling with raspberry
Adding the nut meats
Yum!

13 comments:

  1. That looks delicious. I cant' wait to try it myself.

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  2. That sounds like a winning combination there!

    Is there a reason that you leave head space at the top of your jam? I have always filled mine to within a 1/4 inch of the top of the jar, & have had no problems with mold or spoilage.

    -M

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  3. I have a "Squeezo" which is like a victorio strainer. I have the berry screen, which takes out all the little seeds. There is nothing better than seedless blackberry jam! I bet that raspberry as a seedless one could beat that! Just a thought! God Bless!

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  4. This looks fantastic! I love raspberry jam, too, and raspberry-orange sounds delicious! :)

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  5. Ok, I'm going to have to try this one. My daughter's favorite is raspberry jam. I'm stocked on black raspberry and blueberry. I tried sour cherry for the first time this year and now *I* have a new favorite. Yumm, that conserve looks good.

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  6. Oh, this looks so wonderfully delicious! And so easy to make!!!

    You know Enola, I just love the pictures of the beautiful flowers you have on your page.

    And also the pictures of your jams, cookies and the wonderful foods you cook up for us to enjoy. Very encouraging for us canners, cookers and bakers to have such delightful recipes that look absolutely mouthwateringly scrumptions.
    Pat

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  7. That looks wonderful! My absolute favorite is raspberry-huckleberry conserve. Unfortunately, there are no huckleberries where I live now so I made raspberry jam this year. Yummy!

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  8. This year I tried a few different jam recipes from a book, "Small Batch Preserving". Two that made our, "OMGosh Wow!" list were the Spiced Blueberry Honey jam. The hint of nutmeg sends it over the top giving that cozy holiday feel to anything you put it on. Also one slightly modified as I used the berries on hand to meet the fruit requirement. Raspberry, Blueberry, Cranberry (yes frozen cranberries) and orange peel. The orange peel with the pith taken off as much as possible and the peeling cut into skinny strips about an inch long. Just makes your mouth sing!

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  9. I love how you photograph your food and cooking...so beautiful and yummy! I had a question about canning for you, do you only use the water bath method or do you use a pressure canner too? A lady at church warned me away from the pressure canner when I mentioned I was trying to learn how to can. Take care. ~Amy

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    1. Oh - you MUST use a pressure canner for some things! Water bath canning is only good for fruits and tomatoes. If you can any veggies, broth, beans, meat you HAVE to use a pressure canner. Only by increasing the pressure can you get the temperate up sufficiently to kill bacteria. If you try to can these things in a water bath canner, you food will kill you. Pressure canning is not at all difficult - you just need to follow the directions. It does intimidate some folks because they have heard horror stories from relative long ago, but I have never known a single person who has had an accident with a pressure canner. They are simple to use and very effective. Good luck!
      Enola

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  10. I have enjoyed your blog very much. I plan to make a video today, showing a slight variation of this recipe, but will give you credit nonetheless. I have over 6,000 subscribers who often take my recommendation. Today, I will recommend that they visit your blog. Just thought I'd brace you for that! LOL Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for your efforts in sharing what you know about preparedness. I appreciate you. Katzcradul from YouTube.

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  11. Thank you - and thank you again! I truly appreciate your sending folks to visit me. I am happy to share what I have learned (and continue to learn). I can't wait to see your video.
    Yours,
    Enola

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  12. This looks really good. I am making no sugar added raspberry and orange jam for my type 1diabetic boyfriend. Thanks for the inspiration.

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