I make a lot of things from scratch that most people buy: yogurt, chocolate syrup (for chocolate milk), bread, salad dressings, and many other things. I do buy some condiments, though, including salsa, mustard, ketchup, and jam.
Except I guess I won't be buying jam anymore. And it's all because of the tea party.
I had promised Poppy that we would have a tea party while the MiL was here. Tea parties must, of course, include scones. And those scones must, of course, be accompanied by jam.
We were out of strawberry jam, and I had put it on the list for A. when he went to the store. He missed it, though, and never got any. So there I was, with a tea party promised for the next day, no jam, and no way to get it that didn't involve driving 60 miles.
I did, however, have the last of a bag of strawberries in the freezer, bottled lemon juice, and sugar. And these are the ingredients for strawberry jam.
I've made a lot of jam over the years, so I didn't use a recipe. I didn't even use pectin, because I didn't have any.
I dumped all the strawberries in a pot, heated them gently (so they wouldn't stick) until they were thawed, mashed them with my potato masher, dumped in slightly more than an equal amount of sugar, added a few squirts of lemon juice, and boiled it all furiously, while stirring, until it was sheeting* on a flat wooden spoon.
This jam was enormously popular with everyone, of course. A. especially liked it. His theory is that it tastes better because there's no pectin in it, so the flavor of the strawberries is undiluted.
Out of curiosity, I did a little cost comparison between the ingredients for this jam and a jar of store-brand strawberry jam. What I found is that this jam is about half the cost of the store jam. And it's a lot better than store jam.
Making jam without pectin does require more sugar to get it to a spreadable consistency, otherwise it can be slightly runny. However, we don't worry too much about runny jam. Particularly since it's often used in yogurt.
So I guess we can add jam to the list of things I make now. It's a lot easier than the bread, at least.
* Sheeting is when the jam doesn't drip in individual drips from the spoon when it's upside down, but rather all gathers and falls off all along the spoon in a line.
Ha, I let other people home-make my jam. It's so good. I make such a terrible sticky mess with anything made/canned with syrup ... I think the last I made was sand plum-jalapeno maybe two years ago.
ReplyDeleteHomemade jam is the only thing I've been able to freeze successfully in glass jars. I just use regular pint canning jars. They don't break. I don't know why because I've tried freezing other things in glass jars with no luck - maybe all the sugar keeps the jam too soft to break the jar.
ReplyDeleteKaren.: I got some sand plum jam from a school auction and loved it. I need to scout out some of the bushes/trees that grow wild down the hill.
ReplyDeleteKit: Huh. Glass jars have always broken in the the freezer for me, too. In three different freezers, in fact. I don't make enough jam at a time that it can't be stored in the refrigerator, though.
I put my strawberry freezer jam in the freezer in plastic square containers that can be stacked.
ReplyDeleteWell , I did when I made it. It gives such a rich buttery flavor to ice cream. :)
Would it be weird to thicken it with cornstarch if it didn't get to the sheeting stage?
ReplyDeletecabinart: I feel like that would be weird. The consistency of jam is more like a very soft candy; cornstarch is more sludgy. I think it might also muddy the taste. However, I've never tried it, so it might be worth experimenting.
ReplyDeletecabinart: My input on that is that cornstarch will make it end up like pie filling. It's very different. Also, cornstarch is not a good ingredient if you process jam (like in a waterbath canner). You could use cleargel in a pinch, but imo pectin (which usually is apple-based) is better than cleargel in spite of the flavor modification.
ReplyDeleteI started making jam from scratch, without pectin, when I realized how much more sugar is required when you use pectin. Cooking takes longer, but I think the resulting jam is less sweet, and has a more concentrated fruit flavor. Highly recommended.
ReplyDelete