Jams

The markets of the Savoie all have their wonderful tiny farmstands selling not only garden vegetables but also some home-cooked products, among them rezuls and, of course, jams. They come in those wonderful pots à confitures, which I have known all my life and which William Sonoma a few years back started to sell across the United States as water glasses. The dome lid has not yet arrived in France and one still must cover the “pots” with a neat square of cellophane that stretches, nice and concave, over the smooth layer of jam. Bags of paraffin are also sold, which one melts and pours over the top of the jam if one thinks the supply will last over the winter; most of the time, it does not.