This recipe is designed to cook in a wide 11½ -quart copper preserving pan (see headnote for other suitable cooking vessel options). If you don’t have something this large/wide in your kitchen, that’s fine! Just halve this recipe. This will keep the flavor of your jam fresh and lively with raspberry flavor.

Place five spoons on a plate in the freezer. Measure honey into your preserving pan of choice and start melting it at medium-high heat on the stove. When the honey is liquid and barely starting to bubble/foam, pour your raspberries into the center of the pan, gently folding them into the warm honey. Turn heat to high. When the mixture reaches a full boil, pour in the lemon juice.

Continue to cook until the jam thickens and no longer seems watery, scraping the bottom of the pan with a heatproof silicone spatula to assess texture. If you have a boil-over, simply reduce the heat a little, but as you progress through the cooking (past the chance of a boil-over), don’t forget to inch up the heat back to high. Scrape the pan to prevent the jam from sticking.

To test the jam for doneness, carefully place a half-spoonful of jam on one of the frozen spoons. Return it to the freezer for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the freezer and feel the underside of the spoon. It should be neither warm nor cold. If it is still warm, return the spoon to the freezer for a minute or two.

Gently nudge the jam on the spoon with your finger; if it is thick and gloppy, it is either done or almost done. Tilt spoon vertically; if jam runs very slowly, it is thickened and done. If it runs very quickly or appears watery, continue cooking a few minutes more, stirring, and re-test with a clean spoon until done. Once done, skim off any remaining foam from the jam’s surface with a spoon.

If you are canning the jam, follow the jar manufacturer’s instructions. If you want to eat your preserves right away and don’t feel like canning, simply place the jam in sterile glass jars, let cool completely, then cover with the lids and store in the refrigerator.

VARIATIONS

With the addition of one ingredient, you can transform a recipe into something new. Choose your own adventure!

Raspberry Lime Honey Jam – Once your jam is finished and skimmed for foam, using a fine microplane, zest 3 smaller limes plus the juice of 1 lime into the jam, stir, and jar. Habanero Raspberry Honey Jam – Add 1 fresh or dried habanero pepper along with the lemon juice at the start of the cooking process. Make your pepper easy to fish out from the jam when it’s finished cooking by only cutting it in half three-quarters of the way up the length of the pepper. You can leave on the stem. Start your cut at the pepper’s tip and stop opening up the seed cavity just below the pepper’s shoulders.

Raspberry Rose Honey Jam – Once your jam is finished and skimmed for foam, add a splash of rosewater. Depending on the brand of rosewater (and its strength), you’ll need between 2 and 3 teaspoons. Stir in the rosewater and jar the jam.