It's a Jamboree in this kitchen. The jam making frenzy is winding down and I thought I'd share my findings.
I made several kinds, with different pectins. Peach, blueberry and strawberry I made the old fashioned way, with the old fashioned liquid pectin, results: very nice, three stars. I keep them in the freezer and they still spread just fine on request.
Then yesterday and today, it was red apricot, and sweet cherry, made with the supposedly no cook pectin, all I could find in the store. Result: nice, two and a half stars, different texture from the cooked variety, but flavor still okay.
And the last one to go: tomato/lemon, which is a wonderful breakfast jam, well they all are, well I eat them any time, where was I, oh yes, I used the no cook pectin, but followed the old timey Amish recipe anyway, with the cooking and the mixing and the removal of the seeds, etc., except that what I had were grape tomatoes, so this is an experiment, since they're not as juicy as the big ones. Result: very very nice. Much better than previous years when I used big tomatoes. And cooking the pectin didn't seem to hurt anything. Four stars!!
In all these recipes I halved the instructions, mainly because I only had half as much fruit in my prep anyway.
Stop me before I jam again! I have enough now for me, for little gifts here and there and for cheering food in winter, if it lasts that long. But there again, maybe I'd better get some pectin on the shelf now in case I want to jam in the winter using frozen fruit, when there's no pectin to be had.
Won't they look lovely on the shelves, too! So rewarding. I've never used pectin to make jams and jellies, but haven't made any for 40 years now, probably. My Lizzie did some a couple of weeks ago during our very hot humid spell and of course they wouldn't set worth a hoot. She boiled them up later and they're fine now. I have some of her black currant jelly for my Sunday treat.
ReplyDeleteTomato lemon? Sounds intriguing!! I used to make jam and pickles when the kids were home to eat it. DH and I just end up throwing most of it out so it's not worth my time to make it.
ReplyDeleteThe tomato lemon is an Amish recipe, and I like it a lot. The thing about all this jam making is that it's presents in the making -- a couple of upcoming birthdays of people far too busy to make jam, etc, then there's Christmas. Since this stuff's in the freezer, it will easily go that long.
ReplyDeleteI love consumable presents myself, and most of the people I know are in the process of shedding stuff, and would rather have something they can use up than an object to keep.
That all sounds extremely delicious, with maybe the exception of the strawberry which doesn't agree with me. Yum!
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