Salvage

Sometimes, in the midst of food preparation, I screw up.

I KNOW. And here you thought I was infallible.

No, I'm afraid I am only human after all. There goes my dream of becoming a deity.

ANYWAY.

One of my screw-ups this year was a batch of strawberry-rhubarb jam. I've never had a problem with jam before, because I cheat and use commercial pectin. Making jam and jelly without pectin is HARD, man. There are candy thermometers and testing plates in the freezer and something called sheeting . . . forget it. I prefer the pectin: clear instructions, easy timing, reliable outcome.

Except when you don't read the directions. Ahem.

See, what happened was, the MiL and my sister-in-law were preparing to make strawberry jam and the MiL suggested I make my last batch of jam before they got started. Cubby was asleep at the time, so I figured I might as well. But then Cubby woke up and my brother-in-law was trying to entertain him and the MiL and my SiL were racing around the kitchen washing jars and things and I was rushing trying to finish so I could feed Cubby and I had a different brand of pectin (Sure-Jell) from the last kind (Ball) I had used to make the previous batch of jam, so I just started using the method from the Ball brand which turns out to be different from the Sure-Jell kind in the order in which things are added and there's no lemon juice needed but I added some before I read the directions and . . . well. It didn't set.

So I have a batch of runny strawberry-rhubarb jam. However, this isn't really a tragedy, as runny jam is excellent for flavoring plain yogurt, which is the only kind we buy anyway. But I have discovered a new, delicious use for it. I will now share it with you, just in case you, too, have a mistake you wish to turn into a triumph. At least, if your mistake involves runny jam.

I have this book from the library called Well Preserved: A Jam Making Hymnal by Joan Hassol, which has recipes for dozens of jams. In the preface to the recipe for strawberry lime jam, the author mentioned that the recipe was inspired by her dropping a dollop of strawberry jam into lemon-lime seltzer. And since I just happened to have both lemon-lime seltzer and my screwed up strawberry-rhubarb jam, I decided it was Fate showing me a way to rectify my jam mistake. So I tried it.

YUM.

It tastes like those crazy expensive European fruit sodas, except you can make it less sweet because you control how much jam you add. I added about a tablespoon for a 12-ounce glass of seltzer, but I think less would be better. And I think it would actually be better with runny jelly, because the jam does have some solids in it that don't dissolve into the liquid. If you're one of those people who gets worked up about pulp in orange juice, then this would probably squick you out. I do not have a problem with pulp, however, so I was just fine. In fact, I was delighted.

So next time you have some runny jam, you know what to do.