So...it's been over a month since my last post about this jam. I am thinking I may go out at the end of the week and attempt to make more...maybe with a new recipe that uses pectin instead of apples to make it more jelly-like. But first, I have to share the original experience! Here goes...
Have you ever tried to make jam? If you have, do you remember your first go at it? This was my first try. It wasn't hard, per se, but it was more time consuming than the recipe I used led me to believe. And that makes it feel like it wasn't as easy as I was hoping it would be!
Hover your mouse over the photos below for captions and click on the picture to see the controls.
Have you ever tried to make jam? If you have, do you remember your first go at it? This was my first try. It wasn't hard, per se, but it was more time consuming than the recipe I used led me to believe. And that makes it feel like it wasn't as easy as I was hoping it would be!
Hover your mouse over the photos below for captions and click on the picture to see the controls.
Here is the recipe from 100 Days of Real Food we used (and by "we" I mean, me and my Chupie...): How to Can Some Jam: A Simple Method Without Pectin or (Refined) Sugar
My number one issue I have with most recipes is that they always have a "cooking time" or other time listed. In her blog entry, the author states that she made a half batch of this jam in just over an hour (second to last point under "From one beginner to another, a few key points"). That got me all psyched that this wouldn't take me all day. So when I started this adventure, after heading to Walmart to buy an actual canning pot, it was about 4pm...
We had picked the strawberries a few days earlier at a farm we tried to go to last year for pick-your-own. Last year we ended up getting to the farm at about 2pm on a Saturday and were told they had already been picked clean out! So Chupie and I went on a Friday morning when it was threatening to rain and got tons of berries! I have to say though, Chupie was more interested in the rocks that lined the paths than even the strawberries. What a stinker! I had to put her in her overalls (thanks, Auntie, for the hand-me-downs!) to go to the farm! If you're in the Houston area, they have a petting zoo and other fun stuff too! It's called Blessington Farms. Definitely check them out if you'd like to pick-your-own!
My number one issue I have with most recipes is that they always have a "cooking time" or other time listed. In her blog entry, the author states that she made a half batch of this jam in just over an hour (second to last point under "From one beginner to another, a few key points"). That got me all psyched that this wouldn't take me all day. So when I started this adventure, after heading to Walmart to buy an actual canning pot, it was about 4pm...
We had picked the strawberries a few days earlier at a farm we tried to go to last year for pick-your-own. Last year we ended up getting to the farm at about 2pm on a Saturday and were told they had already been picked clean out! So Chupie and I went on a Friday morning when it was threatening to rain and got tons of berries! I have to say though, Chupie was more interested in the rocks that lined the paths than even the strawberries. What a stinker! I had to put her in her overalls (thanks, Auntie, for the hand-me-downs!) to go to the farm! If you're in the Houston area, they have a petting zoo and other fun stuff too! It's called Blessington Farms. Definitely check them out if you'd like to pick-your-own!
I first had to determine the way I was going to hull the strawberries. What a pain in the neck. I did some research on the various ways and decided to try the most promising ones out. Hopefully next time I will just make blueberry jam and not have to worry about hulling anything. The straw trick, seen here, is only good if you have perfectly shaped, small strawberries.
In all of these straw-to-hull-a-strawberry videos they always show them doing a perfect job and not anything else. How do you get the hull out of the straw? How many times can you use the same straw? They also don't show you that unless you have completely red, ripe berries, there is still a lot of gross white stuff left on the top. So, after a few tries with the straw, that tactic was out.
I then tried my vegetable peeler which I had read could be used. You apparently use the end that is meant to get the eyes out of potatoes to sort of jab and scoop out the hull. Well, again, I had giant strawberries, many irregularly shaped (why pick the nice ones if they are going to be chopped up anyway?), and they were ripe, but not smushy ripe. The peeler basically smushed them just like that. It bruised the berry, and left me covered in juice. Again, gotta try something else...
So, the way that everyone complains about for taking too long is the way I went: Take a paring knife, hold it at an angle, and cut a cone out of the top of the berry. This worked so well. It was relatively easy to do, clean, and didn't waste tons of berry. Just right. The only problem was the leaves. They kept getting in the way. So I finally took my pile of berries and removed all the leaves. This was very easy to do. Don't worry about the stem--that is hard to yank off. The leaves are a piece of cake, seriously. It freaked me out how easy it was. You just grab the leaves and pull. The stem stays put, but it doesn't matter because you're going to cut it out anyway. Once the leaves are gone it is much easier to see what you're cutting.
The process sped along, but there were 6 pounds of strawberries to be hulled. This sounds like A LOT, but it wasn't as much as I had expected, and didn't take too long. Maybe an hour. Okay, so I am almost already in the hole when it comes to "making a half batch in just over an hour."
Well, I was not going to sit there and cut them in half too--that was pushing my "time" button. So, I got out my NINJA food processor and threw them in! I probably chopped them up a bit much...but I don't mind not seeing whole huge pieces of berry in my jam. In fact, I find those big chunks irritating. Away they went with one more hit on the "PULSE" button! I also used the NINJA to chop up the apples. Cut the pieces away from the core and threw them in. Easy as...jam.
The next part is just letting it cook...and cook....annnnnd coooook. I didn't want it to be too watery (next time I may just find a recipe with pectin) so I cooked it for a very long time. The recipe warns that the jam will be more watery than store bought, but that you can cook it for longer and it will become less watery. It also says that you can test if the jam is done by seeing if it sticks to the back of a spoon or sets up on a cold plate. It took over an hour of straight cooking time (adjusting the temperature up and down so it didn't burn and stirring occasionally) for this to happen. Plus I wanted it to be a little less watery, so I kept it cooking until it looked a little thicker than when it was just barely sticking to the spoon.
And of course during this time, the rest of life has to go on! So I had to pause and get back to Chupie now and then! I had to make her dinner. She was coming in the kitchen, bringing toys and blankets for me to trip all over! If she could talk more, I'm sure she would've said, "Please, mom, please pay attention to me!"
I then tried my vegetable peeler which I had read could be used. You apparently use the end that is meant to get the eyes out of potatoes to sort of jab and scoop out the hull. Well, again, I had giant strawberries, many irregularly shaped (why pick the nice ones if they are going to be chopped up anyway?), and they were ripe, but not smushy ripe. The peeler basically smushed them just like that. It bruised the berry, and left me covered in juice. Again, gotta try something else...
So, the way that everyone complains about for taking too long is the way I went: Take a paring knife, hold it at an angle, and cut a cone out of the top of the berry. This worked so well. It was relatively easy to do, clean, and didn't waste tons of berry. Just right. The only problem was the leaves. They kept getting in the way. So I finally took my pile of berries and removed all the leaves. This was very easy to do. Don't worry about the stem--that is hard to yank off. The leaves are a piece of cake, seriously. It freaked me out how easy it was. You just grab the leaves and pull. The stem stays put, but it doesn't matter because you're going to cut it out anyway. Once the leaves are gone it is much easier to see what you're cutting.
The process sped along, but there were 6 pounds of strawberries to be hulled. This sounds like A LOT, but it wasn't as much as I had expected, and didn't take too long. Maybe an hour. Okay, so I am almost already in the hole when it comes to "making a half batch in just over an hour."
Well, I was not going to sit there and cut them in half too--that was pushing my "time" button. So, I got out my NINJA food processor and threw them in! I probably chopped them up a bit much...but I don't mind not seeing whole huge pieces of berry in my jam. In fact, I find those big chunks irritating. Away they went with one more hit on the "PULSE" button! I also used the NINJA to chop up the apples. Cut the pieces away from the core and threw them in. Easy as...jam.
The next part is just letting it cook...and cook....annnnnd coooook. I didn't want it to be too watery (next time I may just find a recipe with pectin) so I cooked it for a very long time. The recipe warns that the jam will be more watery than store bought, but that you can cook it for longer and it will become less watery. It also says that you can test if the jam is done by seeing if it sticks to the back of a spoon or sets up on a cold plate. It took over an hour of straight cooking time (adjusting the temperature up and down so it didn't burn and stirring occasionally) for this to happen. Plus I wanted it to be a little less watery, so I kept it cooking until it looked a little thicker than when it was just barely sticking to the spoon.
And of course during this time, the rest of life has to go on! So I had to pause and get back to Chupie now and then! I had to make her dinner. She was coming in the kitchen, bringing toys and blankets for me to trip all over! If she could talk more, I'm sure she would've said, "Please, mom, please pay attention to me!"
After the jam was done cooking, I went back to the recipe to make sure that I canned it just right. I have tried canning only one other time to make sauce and was so unsure about the results that I kept all the jars in the fridge until the tomato sauce was all eaten!
The steps are pretty easy. You put the jars into the boiling water and wait. And not very long either. It was only a few minutes before they were all done. The tricky part here was ensuring that my jars and lids were sterilized. Unfortunately, my dishwasher was stuffed and so I couldn't sterilize them in there. So I used the canning water to first sterilize the jars. Just to holler out there--if any of you are experts and I did any of this wrong, please let me know so I don't screw up again next time! I did read (after I had canned everything, of course) that you don't need to sterilize the bands for the jars, but I had already done this anyway. Whoops!
After ten minutes in the boiling water, the canning process was done! Then I Googled how to test if the jars were sealed properly. And according to this site (and a few others I checked) it seemed they were! Now I would just have to watch them carefully and make sure they stayed sealed! Click the picture for the website from PickYourOwn.org:
The steps are pretty easy. You put the jars into the boiling water and wait. And not very long either. It was only a few minutes before they were all done. The tricky part here was ensuring that my jars and lids were sterilized. Unfortunately, my dishwasher was stuffed and so I couldn't sterilize them in there. So I used the canning water to first sterilize the jars. Just to holler out there--if any of you are experts and I did any of this wrong, please let me know so I don't screw up again next time! I did read (after I had canned everything, of course) that you don't need to sterilize the bands for the jars, but I had already done this anyway. Whoops!
After ten minutes in the boiling water, the canning process was done! Then I Googled how to test if the jars were sealed properly. And according to this site (and a few others I checked) it seemed they were! Now I would just have to watch them carefully and make sure they stayed sealed! Click the picture for the website from PickYourOwn.org:
And everything was completed by about 8:30 that night. Okay, so as a first timer, it took me 4 hours to do all of this...definitely more than an hour! Is that crazy? Was I being a perfectionist or a little bit OCD about the process? YES! I wanted to do it right! And the jam came out totally DELICIOUS (and the jars I didn't give away were sealed until I opened up the last one to eat a few days ago!) so I guess I did okay! :)
Have a favorite jam recipe you've tried? I'm out to pick blueberries from the same farm in May when they switch over from strawberries. I'll have to try my awesome jam making skills again! And this time I won't have to worry about the best way to hull a blueberry!!!
Have a favorite jam recipe you've tried? I'm out to pick blueberries from the same farm in May when they switch over from strawberries. I'll have to try my awesome jam making skills again! And this time I won't have to worry about the best way to hull a blueberry!!!