Thing Fifty-Five: JAM!
Aug. 13th, 2014 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badseed1980I've done some canning before. Not much. I canned some pickled jalapeños in an effort to preserve some of my garden's produce. That, I did on my own. I also made some amazingly delicious apple butter with one of my bridesmaids, canning that in little jars as favors for my wedding this past fall. She and I worked together on that all day, and finished pretty late at night. I still have some of that apple butter, and it has been a delight to eat on my toast.
That same friend and former bridesmaid is on vacation this week, and asked me to check in on her cats every few days. My "bonus" for doing so was that I could pick as many blackberries from her backyard blackberry bush as I wanted, since the ripe ones wouldn't be good anymore by the time she and her family returned. On Monday, I went to check on the cats, and ended up picking an entire QUART of blackberries. I just couldn't bear to leave any of the ripe ones that I could reach there to rot. Now, I'd also just been to the farmers' market, and had bought a fairly big box of bluberries. This made for a grand total of one metric buttload of berries. It was definitely more than I could eat before they went bad. There was only one possible solution: cook the blackberries up into something that would last longer than they would fresh.
Now, my husband is a big fan of blackberry jam, but prefers it WITH seeds. These days, it can be hard to find any that isn't seedless in the stores. What could be a better use of my bounty than to make a supply of seedy blackberry jam? I ran to the Interwebz and sought advice from my go-to resource on canning, the National Center for Home Food Preservation. It had a little chart that gave simple ratios for making fruit jams, with or without pectin. Since I didn't have any pectin, I opted for the latter. For any kind of berry, it said, use four cups of crushed berry pulp to four cups of sugar, and that would make 3-4 half-pint jars.
When I washed and crushed my berries, I was left with about two cups of pulp. Hey, easy ratios are easy! I dumped the pulp and two cups of sugar into a non-reactive pot, and started cooking it down while I sterilized a couple of half-pint jars. When it started looking thicker, I checked it by putting a spoonful on a chilled plate in the freezer for a couple of minutes. Yes, it had gelled nicely! I filled my two jars, and heard the lids pop satisfyingly. But what was this? I had a decent bit of jam still left in the pot! I grabbed one of the little jars I'd used for the apple butter, gave it a wash, and popped it into the pot to sterilize. I filled it and put on the lid, and to my relief (it was a little one-piece screw-on lid with no button), it went concave on me very quickly. Success! I still had more jam in the pot, but it was too late for me to consider sterilizing another jar, so I just washed one, spooned in the jam, and stuck it in the fridge.
I feel like this was a super-successful venture for several reasons:
1) I avoided waste of good produce by preserving it!
2) I got in some practice canning!
3) I learned a simple ratio that will mean I'll never need a pectin-free jam recipe again!
4) I made something yummy that my husband will like!
All in all, a win.
That same friend and former bridesmaid is on vacation this week, and asked me to check in on her cats every few days. My "bonus" for doing so was that I could pick as many blackberries from her backyard blackberry bush as I wanted, since the ripe ones wouldn't be good anymore by the time she and her family returned. On Monday, I went to check on the cats, and ended up picking an entire QUART of blackberries. I just couldn't bear to leave any of the ripe ones that I could reach there to rot. Now, I'd also just been to the farmers' market, and had bought a fairly big box of bluberries. This made for a grand total of one metric buttload of berries. It was definitely more than I could eat before they went bad. There was only one possible solution: cook the blackberries up into something that would last longer than they would fresh.
Now, my husband is a big fan of blackberry jam, but prefers it WITH seeds. These days, it can be hard to find any that isn't seedless in the stores. What could be a better use of my bounty than to make a supply of seedy blackberry jam? I ran to the Interwebz and sought advice from my go-to resource on canning, the National Center for Home Food Preservation. It had a little chart that gave simple ratios for making fruit jams, with or without pectin. Since I didn't have any pectin, I opted for the latter. For any kind of berry, it said, use four cups of crushed berry pulp to four cups of sugar, and that would make 3-4 half-pint jars.
When I washed and crushed my berries, I was left with about two cups of pulp. Hey, easy ratios are easy! I dumped the pulp and two cups of sugar into a non-reactive pot, and started cooking it down while I sterilized a couple of half-pint jars. When it started looking thicker, I checked it by putting a spoonful on a chilled plate in the freezer for a couple of minutes. Yes, it had gelled nicely! I filled my two jars, and heard the lids pop satisfyingly. But what was this? I had a decent bit of jam still left in the pot! I grabbed one of the little jars I'd used for the apple butter, gave it a wash, and popped it into the pot to sterilize. I filled it and put on the lid, and to my relief (it was a little one-piece screw-on lid with no button), it went concave on me very quickly. Success! I still had more jam in the pot, but it was too late for me to consider sterilizing another jar, so I just washed one, spooned in the jam, and stuck it in the fridge.
I feel like this was a super-successful venture for several reasons:
1) I avoided waste of good produce by preserving it!
2) I got in some practice canning!
3) I learned a simple ratio that will mean I'll never need a pectin-free jam recipe again!
4) I made something yummy that my husband will like!
All in all, a win.
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no subject
Date: 2014-08-15 07:24 pm (UTC)http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/blackberry-chia-seed-jam/
It is on my list to do soonish. :)
no subject
Date: 2014-08-15 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-16 02:33 am (UTC)One that would work for canning, but I haven't had a chance to try is this one: http://www.superhealthykids.com/healthy-kids-recipes/beet-berry-jam.php
It does need pectin, but it is (or can be) a "no additional sugar" recipe.