Whole-Berry Raspberry Jam, Cooked in Camp
Raspberries held together in syrup instead of stirred into mush. A camp stove, one pot, and patience.
- calories
- 230
- weight
- 4 oz
- cal / oz
- 58
- protein
- 1 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 100 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Breakfast
- Canister stove
- Campfire coals
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Day one only
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Raspberries | 500 g | firm and whole, not the crushed ones at the bottom of the box |
|---|---|---|
| Granulated sugar | 400 g | measured at home into a screw-top jar |
| Water | 100 ml | |
| Lemon juice | 1 tbsp | bottled, from a small squeeze tube |
Method
- Put the sugar and 100 ml of water in the pot. Heat gently and stir only until the sugar dissolves. After that, stop stirring.
- Boil the syrup for about five minutes, until it runs thick off the spoon and a drop holds its shape on a cold lid.
- Pull the pot off the heat and tip the raspberries in. Do not stir them. Swirl the pot by the handle so the syrup coats them.
- Return to low heat. Let it come up slowly and simmer, swirling every few minutes. Skim the pink foam off the top with a spoon.
- Cook until the syrup falls off the spoon in a sheet rather than drops, roughly 20 minutes. Add the lemon juice in the last minute.
- Let it cool in the pot. Spoon into a clean jar. Eat it within two days out of a cooler, or the same day without one.
Jam usually gets stirred into pulp. This one does not, and that is the whole point. The syrup is cooked to thickness first, then the berries go in off the heat and are never touched with a spoon again. Swirling the pot moves the syrup around them instead of through them, so they come out intact.
This is a car-camping recipe, not a backpacking one. Fresh raspberries do not survive a pack, and the sugar load makes it heavy for what it is. Cooked properly it is shelf-stable in a sealed jar at home, but a camp jar opened with a camp spoon is not sterile, so treat it as a two-day food and keep it cool. The lemon juice at the end is for set, not flavor; the acid is what makes the syrup grip.
Packing
Sugar goes in a jar at home, pre-measured, so nothing gets weighed at camp. Carry the berries in a rigid container on top of everything else. Bring one wide spoon for skimming and a clean jar with a real lid for what you do not eat.
Variations
- Halve the batch if you only want a jar for morning oatmeal.
- A split vanilla bean dropped in with the berries turns it into something worth eating with a spoon.
- No raspberries in season: 350 g of dried raspberries or cherries soaked in the syrup works, though the berries will not stay whole.
https://savoriurbane.com/dulceata-de-zmeura-intreaga