Currant Jam

Picked a nice bowlful of currants and made currant jelly over the weekend. Did you know currants are naturally high in pectin? I just read that in one of my newer jamming books (The Joy of Jams, Jellies and Other Sweet Preserves by Linda Ziedrich). That means I can skip the commercial pectin and just jell away!

Following Ziedrich's I used equal parts currant juice and sugar (3 to 3) instead of the 5 cups to juice to 7 cups sugar recipe that comes with commercial pectin. I am really working on using less sugar in my jams.

I also added a tablespoon of rosewater to the batch. Can't say that I really tasted it though--which is a bummer.

My favorite local cafe serves a rosewater lemonade that is just heavenly. Ah well, will just have to get a little more heavy handed with the next batch. It's a dangerous game playing with rosewater though--just a little bit too much and the flavor is too overpowering.

If you know of any jam recipes that call for rosewater let me know--I looking for a guide to quantity!

First Jam of the Year

Oh that photo is not the best. I should have taken one when the berries were all pretty and sliced and waiting to go into the pot.

And actually, I should clarify, it's not 'jam' but 'preserves.' The difference? Preserves aren't meant to fully set up like jam. They're meant to be a little runny and good for pouring over pancakes, poundcake, ice cream, or yoghurt.

I got the recipe from Saving the Season--my new uber-favorite canning blog discovered late last season. My jam books might just now be tragically obsolete. (Nah....just supplemented.)

The recipe is for Strawberry Perserves with Balsamic Vinegar and Black Pepper. Sadly, I think my palate is weak. I doubled the black pepper and used 25-year-old-imported-direct-from-Italy balsamic vinegar and I still don't taste it. It was my very last tablespoon of good balsamic or I might have been tempted to double that too.

(That gets me in trouble in the kitchen. If something is good, more is better, right? Um, yeah....not always.)

Still I have to say that the preserves ARE heavenly. Really. Way better than jam.

I spent $18 to get three quarts of organic berries at the farmer's market. (All you folks back home with large wonderful gardens will be shaking your heads in amazement, but that's only $1.50 more per quart than regular berries at our city-folk prices.) What can I say? Berries are on the dirty dozen list. Pesticides cling to these beauties like stink on a goat. It's worth the added expense.

I had enough for the jam and loads to eat fresh on the side. And I just might do it all over again this Saturday.

Blackberry Cab Jam

Last night, not one, but TWO people brought me fresh, wild blackberries. I felt like Maria from the Sound of Music, surprised to find such karmic goodness in her life....for somewhere in my youth, or childhood, I must have done something good.

I had way more than enough for a batch of jam. Happily, I found a Blackberry Cabernet Sauvignon jam recipe in that 175 Best Jams book I told you about earlier. Also happily, I only needed a cup for the recipe, so some of my sainted berry-bearers stuck around to help me drink the rest of the bottle.

That's two favors they did for me in one night. How lucky am I?

We Be Jammin'

Well Preserved by Joan Hassol
175 Best Jams, Jellies, Marmalades & Other Soft Spreads by Linda J. Amendt

These are my two favorite jamming books. Both available from the Brown County Library. (In fact, if you look closely you can see the one of the left IS a library book.) I own two others, but these are the best.

Why do I like them? Well, they both rely on commercial pectin and I appreciate the low-work, no-fail results you get with products like Certo and Sure-Jell.

Second, both books push the 'Strawberry-Rhubarb' envelope with fun new combinations that incorporate ingredients like preserved ginger, citrus, vanilla bean, spices and liqueurs.

Using these books last year, I made pear & Frangelico, cranberry jalepeno, peach brandy, raspberry rum, and blueberry lemon in addition to more traditional flavors, currant and elderberry. (Wow, that was kind of a lot!)

Would love to learn to make more artisan-style jams without commercial pectin, but I want a personal teacher for that. Every time I try, it's a failure and I hate to waste all that fruit. Sure, it makes good pancake topping, but there's something about failed jam that just doesn't say 'Merry Christmas' to me. (You didn't think I was eating all that jam by myself, did you?)

I've also done some experimenting with Pomona's Pectin, 'cause you can cut the sugar way way down, but that too can lead to failure if you don't have the right recipe. I started keeping a jam log last year so I can start to learn and experiment rather than just following a recipe all the time.

Anyone know of an artisan jam class in Wisconsin?

Apricot Lime

Bill shared some of the Extension's organic apricot harvest with me, so of course I had to make jam. You're looking at a jar of 'apricot lime.'

Last year my batch of 'blueberry lemon' was the runaway favorite. While I don't exactly taste the citrus, I think it really brightens the flavor.