Getting in a Jam

Russians love making their own food supplies for the winter — they spend late summer  salting, drying and preserving  as many of the fruits of nature as they possibly can. And although jam and pickled vegetables can be bought quite cheaply, almost every Russian apartment has a corner stuffed with jars of preserves.

Some believe that the tradition of making varenye (jam) spread through Russia relatively recently, when even the most necessary and basic goods were in short supply. But this is not true. In fact, varenye was already being made at the courts of Russian princes over 500 years ago. 

A good housewife was expected to be able to keep her family in varenye all through the winter. Varenye was made in the houses of nobles, and refined Petersburg ladies who were just married would go off to their country estates, forget their city habits and learn to make varenye, often simply because they were bored. (Interestingly, varenye making was considered married women’s work — girls who did this risked ridicule from their peers.) 

Of course these noblewomen didn’t make the varenye themselves — it’s hard to imagine a princess with a ladle in her hand — but simply gave orders and supervised the process. Trusted maids did all the work. Under serfdom, women who could make good varenye were very highly prized. In fact, in the middle of the last century, one woman even separated from her husband because he swapped her serf woman, who knew the recipe for excellent cherry varenye, for a pack of borzois.

Even today, the skill of making varenye is said to take years to develop. Therefore babushkas are usually given this vital task. And although at first sight it seems easy, many of them have their own special recipes: what to put in the varenye and how much, when and how to mix it and so on. In fact, the making of varenye requires the knowledge of several small secrets.

For example, it has to be made in a special shallow  basin, preferably not enamelled. It should be filled with no more than 12 lb. of berries, otherwise the smaller ones could be crushed and the varenye overcook. The finished product should be poured into medium-sized glass jars with volumes of up to 3 pints. They should preferably be covered with pieces of paper, sealed  at the neck with twine or rubber bands.

Varenye is made from all kinds of fruit and berries, and even from some vegetables, like carrots. The recipe we give you here is for raspberry jam, one of the most popular in Russia. Together with hot tea it makes an excellent cure for colds, and children get a lot more pleasure from it than pills or cough mixture.

Raspberries appeared on the territory of Russia in pagan times, but were not grown domestically until the 18th century. Three hundred years ago, raspberry-loving bears still wandered through thick bushes not far from Moscow, and even now you can still run into ursine rivals if you go picking in the remote Siberian forest. Witnesses say that at these meetings the bears don’t even notice the humans — they’re too busy with the berries.

— Yelena Utenkova

Ingredients

For every 1lb. 

of varenye,
use 1lb. 

of sugar

Sort through the raspberries taking out the middles. Then put them in a wide dish, pour on half the sugar and leave for 5-6 hours in a cool place (or in a fridge). Pour the juice that accumulates into the basin you are going to use to make the varenye. Add the remaining sugar to it, bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes until a thick homogeneous liquid forms. Cool this syrup slightly, then add the berries to it, carefully shake the basin so that the berries become submerged in the syrup, and put on to simmer again. Simmering time depends on how thick or liquid you want the varenye to be, but should be no longer than half an hour. Basically the varenye is considered ready if the syrup comes off the spoon in a thick rather than thin stream..

Cool the ready varenye a little and pour into jars. Now you can have it with your tea, add it to porridge or rice pudding, or spread it on bread.