Before you start, make sure that your sterilise all of your glass jars per Note 1
Add the raspberries to a colander/large sieve and gently wash the raspberries. You may need to do this in batches.
1 kg raspberries
Give the colander a good shake to remove excess water and pour the raspberries out onto kitchen paper or an aged kitchen towel (it will get stained).
When dried, add the raspberries, sugar and lemon juice to a large saucepan and thoroughly mix.
900 g sugar, 4 tbsp lemon juice
Place the pan over a low heat and gently stir while the sugar dissolves. This takes anything up to 8 – 10 minutes. Make sure that no sugar remains on the side of the pan as you don’t want to bite into a chunk of sugar with your toast.
When all of the sugar has dissolved nicely, turn the heat up until a gentle boil is achieved.
Continue to boil for about 5 minutes making sure you stir often to avoid burning. After the initial 5 minutes, it’s time to check if the jam will set.
Remove the saucer from the freezer. Using a teaspoon add a little jam to the saucer and put to one side for 20 – 30 seconds. Pull your finger through the jam and look for wrinkles.
If there are wrinkles left behind by your finger, then the jam is ready and should be removed from the heat. If it’s still smooth, then the jam is not quite ready and should be gently boiled for another 2 minutes and tried again.
Pour/spoon/ladle the jam into your sterilised jars and seal immediately. Wipe the jars to remove any spills and allow to cool before storing int a cool cupboard.
Notes
Note 1: I use glass preserving jars I brought at a local shop, and they work superbly. To sterilise, wash thoroughly in hot water with washing up liquid, rinse well and place into deep sided baking tray. This recipe results in about 40 oz of jam so make sure you have enough jars.Preheat your oven to 120C/255F and when up to temperature add the jars and leave in the oven for 20 minutes while you make the jam. Remove from the oven and add the jam immediately.Note 2: If the raspberries are out of season use frozen.