Why do some recipes call for eating apples, while others specify cooking ones?
A For many recipes it does matter. Cooking and eating apples behave differently when cooked. If you want the apple to break down to a soft, fluffy mush then use a cooking apple. If you need the apple to keep its shape – in a tarte Tatin, for example – use an eating apple. Q My mother used to make a blackberry jam without the ‘bits’. I am now a grandmother myself and would love to make it but have no idea how. Do you have a recipe? G C, Stanmore, Hants A Pick more than 6 lb/2.7kg of blackberries (not overripe), then wash and put them in a large saucepan with the juice of two lemons and .25 pint/125ml water. Simmer the fruit very gently until the berries are cooked and the contents of the pan well reduced. Push the fruit mixture through a fine sieve or strainer. This is well worth the effort if you don’t want any bits in your jam. Now weigh the pulp. For each 1 lb/450g use 1 lb/450g of granulated sugar. Put the pulp and sugar together in a preserving pan and stir over a low heat until th
