Raspberry Mecker – Extra Jam

Framboise Mecker Raspberry Preserve with Seeds

Alain Milliat's Framboise Mecker Extra Preserve is a French raspberry preserve made from the Meeker variety. With 60% fruit, it is intensely red, fruity, tart, and not too sweet. The seeds are left in, as they carry the aroma.

Raspberry preserve with this much character is rare: Alain Milliat's Framboise Mecker is packed with Meeker variety raspberries, which are made for preserving. With a 60% fruit content in the 300g jar, it tastes like ripe raspberries—fruity with a fine acidity, not like sugar.

Fruity-tart, dark red, with a crunch

Just opening the jar releases the aroma of sun-warmed, freshly picked raspberries.

The preserve glows dark red and is full of fruit and small seeds. These seeds are intentionally not strained out, as they carry the aroma and give the preserve its characteristic crunch. It spreads across bread with a fruity, fresh, vibrant quality, possessing the acidity that defines every good raspberry.

That is the point of an "Extra" preserve: plenty of fruit, little else. The sugar takes a backseat, allowing the raspberry to lead with its bright, clear freshness. This is what a berry tastes like when picked ripe and gently cooked.

The raspberry is the most delicate of berries, softening as soon as it is picked. That it arrives in the jar with its seeds is no coincidence, but intentional: the fine seeds hold the aroma and structure, whereas a strained jelly would simply be sweet. This way, the raspberry remains true to itself.

On a Sunday croissant and between layers of sponge cake

This raspberry preserve is right at home on a fresh croissant or a warm brioche.

It pairs just as well with crusty baguette as it does with yogurt, quark, or rice pudding, adding freshness to any breakfast toast. It looks just as good between two layers of sponge cake or in a cake base; they go together wonderfully. If you like berries, pair it with the Strawberry Preserve.

A spoonful of raspberry over vanilla ice cream or panna cotta, and you have an instant dessert with the color of summer. You can find more for your breakfast table right nearby.

Raspberry pairs especially beautifully with dark chocolate: a spoonful in a mousse, a dollop on a brownie, and acidity and cocoa meet as an old, classic pair. A little luxury that takes almost no effort and is essentially foolproof.

The Meeker, a raspberry for preserves

The Meeker variety, botanically Rubus idaeus Meeker, was developed in America in 1967 and thrives in sunny, dry locations.

The raspberries for this preserve grow near Paris and are ripe as soon as they easily detach from the stem by hand, because the flavor develops on the bush, as Alain always emphasizes. Alain Milliat, a fruit grower himself from Orliénas near Lyon, took over the family farm in 1983 and, starting in 1997, brought fruit to the level of quality he knew from wine.

He sent his first six juices to 60 top-tier restaurants, and the enthusiasm of the sommeliers proved him right. The fruits come from various regions of France, and the preserves are cooked in the Rhône department near Lyon. What has been true for his juice since 1997 applies here in the jar as well. The full story is told in the portrait of Alain Milliat; you can find other varieties in our preserves collection. Truly remarkable.