I won’t presume to offer apologies for my teensy delay in blog posts because that would assume that anyone missed me. Instead I am going to jump back in to blogging with one of my very most favorite things to do. Make jam.
Have you ever made jam? To me, jam is the art of taking some fruit, adding sugar, maybe some herbs or spices if you’re fancy like that and cooking it until it is somehow better than and reminiscent of that fruit at its sweetest peak. And opening a jar of home canned strawberry jam on the coldest January morning? There is nothing better. Unless, of course, you are opening a jar of concord grape jam.
I don’t do things small. When I set out to make jam, I make a ton of jam. For this day of jam making I started with 10 quarts of luscious concord grapes.
10 quarts is a lot of grapes. But jam doesn’t like to be made in huge batches. For safest results, jam should be cooked in small batches according to proven recipes. For these batches of jam, I used a recipe from Epicurious
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Concord-Grape-Jam-232813
It’s super easy to make although it is time consuming. Slipping the skins off of 10 quarts of grapes takes a while. It goes a lot faster with a friend…or a very patient boyfriend. Music helps. Alcohol helps more.
I’m thinking this should be the last of my jam making for this season. I’ve made a lot of jam this season. So far my cupboard contains:
Concord Grape Jam
Strawberry Jam
Strawberry Vanilla Jam
Strawberry Peach Jam
Peach Jam
Peach Ginger Jam
Cherry Jelly
Rhubarb Jam
Apricot Jam
Apricot Champagne Jam
Spiced Apricot Jam
Apricot Vanilla
I’m a little sad I never got to make raspberry jam but I’m thinking that we will not want for jam this winter.
How about you, have you made jam? What is your favorite kind of jam?
Glad you are back, hopefully you will stick around. As you read I was completely in the same boat as wendalicious above. I know we are not alone, and I don’t really know where this big fear of canning comes from, is it just about listeria? You have much more patients than I do though, slipping all the skins off of those grapes, good for you. Now that I have started canning I am amped to get into all this type of stuff, I am looking into making my own extracts. Any other ideas you want to pass along? Again, welcome back
Thanks Jess, I am going to try to stick around more…as time permits and all that.
I guess I don’t get scared about Listeria because I know my own kitchen habits. I practice scrupulous sanitation and I follow safe recipes.
Extracts are fun and since they are alcohol based you should feel more confident with them. I’ve made vanilla extract and it’s beautiful. So much more fragrant than commercial vanilla and filled with all those gorgeous vanilla seeds.
I’ve also played around with alcohol and fruit. I have a bottle of apricot cordial in my fridge.
That looks awesome — I have GOT to get me a food mill one of these days, so I can do grape jam. Grape season’s probably already ending for this year, right? (The food seasons go by so quickly, it seems.) I’ll have to get one before next year, for sure.
I did make strawberry jam this year, though, which was delicious. And I made blueberry jam, which I actually haven’t had a chance to try yet. And I found three bags of berries in the freezer last night — I’m thinking maybe some sort of mixed-berry jam, maybe? Or a mixed-berry SOMETHING, at least.
I’ve made perfectly delicious jam from frozen mixed berries. Just this past winter I was craving jam. Not even to eat it, just to make it and frozen berries seemed the best bet.
BTW, I make jam all the time and I’ve never owned a food mill.
“Sweetly Tart (1)” – what a pleasant surprise in my Reader this morning!
I’m a marmalade eater mostly (orange obviously), but I’ll always make an exception for homemade jam. My grandfather’s victoria plum jam was the taste of my childhood, as far as I can recall it was the only thing he ever cooked.
Marmalade is on my short list of things to learn how to make. I never have and I think the possibilities are endless…kumquat marmalade? Meyer lemon?
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against marmalade made of other fruit, but orange marmalade is…well, it’s what you have on toast and some days on rolls for lunch…running out is almost like running out of coffee.
No, OK that last part wasn’t true.
I’ve spent many hours picking so I could spend just a few minutes enjoying my wife’s strawberry or blueberry jam.
I have always wanted to make jam. But I’ve never had the nerve. I’ve always been intimidated by the process – I’m convinced I’d make a giant batch of listeria.
It’s so, so easy. We should do a jam making collaboration! It will give me something to blog about.
I think that would be a great idea! Let’s do it. We have to wait until next summer, though, don’t we?
Not necessarily. It is possible to jam supermarket fruit.
welcome back!
Thanks Nancy.