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Today, I made jam. Specifically, I made THIS jam:
Cherry-Berry Jam
1 apple, grated
1 1/3 sour cherries, pitted
1 1/3 ripe (and ripe-enough) service berries
½ C water
NOTE: I also used half a peach, because I had it lying around, but whatever.
1C water
2 ¼ C sugar
1 tbsp pear cider vinegar (apple cider vinegar or raspberry vinegar could also work here)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
Combine the first four ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and mashing up the fruit with your spoon (honestly, stirring with a potato masher wouldn’t hurt here, but it’s not a requirement). Do this for about 10 minutes.
Pour the hot fruit mixture into a food processor[1] fitted with an S-blade, and mill on high-speed until everything is well-pureed and there aren’t any large chunks of apple skin (for example) hiding about. Be aware that the food processor will probably leak a little bit while doing this.
Measure your pureed fruit and return it to the pot. You should have about two cups.
If you haven’t already done so, this is a good time to sterilize your jars:
Fill a deep skillet (steel preferred) half-way up with water
Upturn two empty 2C mason jars into the skillet, so that their mouths are on the bottom of the pan and a little water is inside the glass. Add the rings and lids to the water as well.
Turn on the heat and bring the water to a rolling boil. Don’t worry that the jars are shaking around like crazy. This is okay. They will be fine.
Boil the water for at least five minutes, letting the heat of the steam sterilize the jars. The boiling water will do the same for the lids and rings.
Once the jars are good and hot, remove them from the water. You will need oven mitts for this. You will also want tongs of some sort to fish out the lids and rings.
Set them on a wire rack (upside down) to dry, and get on with making the jam
Okay. So you’ve got your two cups of fruit puree in your pot. Add to this the one cup of water plus the sugar, vinegar and cloves.
Put a glass/ceramic plate in your kitchen freezer
NOW heat up your fruit mixture (on medium heat), stirring constantly, until the sugar all dissolves.
Bring your fruit mixture to a rolling boil, stirring constantly, and boil the hell out of it for a good ten minutes. At this point it should be starting to thicken just a tiny little bit.
Take the plate out of the freezer, and dribble a little bit of the fruit mixture over the plate. Hold it vertically and let it slide a little bit. If you can streak your finger through the goo and have it not run together again, you’re good to go. (If it runs together, put the plate back in the freezer and keep boiling the fruit – do the plate test again in another five minutes)
Using a funnel (trust me, it’s way easier this way), pour the jam into the sterilized jars. Fill them to the “shoulder” of the jar (or a little higher, but not all the way to the top). Add the lids and screw them on “finger-tip tight” (you’ll want oven mitts on to do this right, ‘cause they’ll be very hot with the fruit in them).
Turn the capped jars upside down and set them in the skillet of water. The water should come well up over the lids of the jars (thence having them upside down).
Turn on the heat again, and bring the water to a boil. Leave the jars in the boiling water for a good five minutes, more if you want. Then remove the jars and set them (right side up) on a wire rack to cool.
As the jars cool, you will here popping sounds. This is fine. It means the heat is properly sealing the jars.
Once the jars have cooled, you will need to tighten the rings again, as the lids will have sucked themselves down onto the jars (thus sealing them). But that’s it. You have just made jam. Go you!
*~*~*~*~*
This recipe, which is kind of a cheater’s jam, since it waters down the fruit and adds sugar by volume after that, makes about two 2C mason jars worth of jam. Having only just made the stuff, I haven’t got a clue what it’s consistency is going to be like (whether it’ll be closer to jam or jelly, for example), but going by the stuff I used in the cold-plate test, it’s going to (a) be ridiculously sweet, and (b) taste pretty good, in spite of that. :-)
Rayne says: This isn't just bio-reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegional, it's, like, micro bio-reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegional. Do I get extra points for that? ;-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon.
Cherry-Berry Jam
1 apple, grated
1 1/3 sour cherries, pitted
1 1/3 ripe (and ripe-enough) service berries
½ C water
NOTE: I also used half a peach, because I had it lying around, but whatever.
1C water
2 ¼ C sugar
1 tbsp pear cider vinegar (apple cider vinegar or raspberry vinegar could also work here)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
Combine the first four ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and mashing up the fruit with your spoon (honestly, stirring with a potato masher wouldn’t hurt here, but it’s not a requirement). Do this for about 10 minutes.
Pour the hot fruit mixture into a food processor[1] fitted with an S-blade, and mill on high-speed until everything is well-pureed and there aren’t any large chunks of apple skin (for example) hiding about. Be aware that the food processor will probably leak a little bit while doing this.
Measure your pureed fruit and return it to the pot. You should have about two cups.
If you haven’t already done so, this is a good time to sterilize your jars:
Fill a deep skillet (steel preferred) half-way up with water
Upturn two empty 2C mason jars into the skillet, so that their mouths are on the bottom of the pan and a little water is inside the glass. Add the rings and lids to the water as well.
Turn on the heat and bring the water to a rolling boil. Don’t worry that the jars are shaking around like crazy. This is okay. They will be fine.
Boil the water for at least five minutes, letting the heat of the steam sterilize the jars. The boiling water will do the same for the lids and rings.
Once the jars are good and hot, remove them from the water. You will need oven mitts for this. You will also want tongs of some sort to fish out the lids and rings.
Set them on a wire rack (upside down) to dry, and get on with making the jam
Okay. So you’ve got your two cups of fruit puree in your pot. Add to this the one cup of water plus the sugar, vinegar and cloves.
Put a glass/ceramic plate in your kitchen freezer
NOW heat up your fruit mixture (on medium heat), stirring constantly, until the sugar all dissolves.
Bring your fruit mixture to a rolling boil, stirring constantly, and boil the hell out of it for a good ten minutes. At this point it should be starting to thicken just a tiny little bit.
Take the plate out of the freezer, and dribble a little bit of the fruit mixture over the plate. Hold it vertically and let it slide a little bit. If you can streak your finger through the goo and have it not run together again, you’re good to go. (If it runs together, put the plate back in the freezer and keep boiling the fruit – do the plate test again in another five minutes)
Using a funnel (trust me, it’s way easier this way), pour the jam into the sterilized jars. Fill them to the “shoulder” of the jar (or a little higher, but not all the way to the top). Add the lids and screw them on “finger-tip tight” (you’ll want oven mitts on to do this right, ‘cause they’ll be very hot with the fruit in them).
Turn the capped jars upside down and set them in the skillet of water. The water should come well up over the lids of the jars (thence having them upside down).
Turn on the heat again, and bring the water to a boil. Leave the jars in the boiling water for a good five minutes, more if you want. Then remove the jars and set them (right side up) on a wire rack to cool.
As the jars cool, you will here popping sounds. This is fine. It means the heat is properly sealing the jars.
Once the jars have cooled, you will need to tighten the rings again, as the lids will have sucked themselves down onto the jars (thus sealing them). But that’s it. You have just made jam. Go you!
*~*~*~*~*
This recipe, which is kind of a cheater’s jam, since it waters down the fruit and adds sugar by volume after that, makes about two 2C mason jars worth of jam. Having only just made the stuff, I haven’t got a clue what it’s consistency is going to be like (whether it’ll be closer to jam or jelly, for example), but going by the stuff I used in the cold-plate test, it’s going to (a) be ridiculously sweet, and (b) taste pretty good, in spite of that. :-)
Rayne says: This isn't just bio-reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegional, it's, like, micro bio-reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegional. Do I get extra points for that? ;-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon.
