| Strawberry jamming Again
| |
| | something needs to be added. I usually
|
| More practical musings ? hints and tips
| |
| | add lemon juice, which doesn?t affect the
|
| on making strawberry jam.
| |
| | flavour, you can also buy pectin in
|
| Sunshine for the rest of the year
| |
| | packets. The more lemon juice you use ,
|
| So I?m preparing strawberries for jam,
| |
| | the more likely it is to set firm ? I
|
| the third evening this week. It is the
| |
| | like mine a bit runny, so tend to juggle
|
| most productive week of the year as far
| |
| | the lemon juice a bit.
|
| as our strawberries are concerned. The
| |
| | 1 kg prepared strawberries
|
| best are already sold, fresh in punnets
| |
| | 750g sugar
|
| and the seconds, some with scarcely a
| |
| | 25ml-50ml lemon juice or more if it
|
| blemish, others hideously deformed but
| |
| | doesn?t set!
|
| still flavoursome, are piled in heaps
| |
| | Use a large thick based pan. The
|
| waiting to be hulled, halved, weighed and
| |
| | strawberries should only come to about
|
| jammed.
| |
| | half way up or they will boil merrily
|
| Just taking part in this process, I feel
| |
| | over, coating your stove with sticky
|
| a bond back through the centuries with
| |
| | foam. Let the strawberries soak with the
|
| all the women, who preserved, jammed,
| |
| | sugar overnight. This brings out the
|
| pickled, prolonging the goodness and
| |
| | juice and keeps the fruit firmer so it
|
| abundance of the seasonal produce to last
| |
| | doesn?t dissolve into a mush when cooked.
|
| the whole year through. In the days
| |
| | Bring slowly to the boil, stirring
|
| before fridges, freezers, supermarkets,
| |
| | occasionally to make sure the sugar
|
| intercontinental fast transport, each
| |
| | dissolves before it boils. Then add the
|
| household would have relied on itself to
| |
| | lemon juice. Boil at a moderate pace,
|
| survive the winter without diseases
| |
| | without stirring, for at least half an
|
| caused by vitamin deficiency and lack of
| |
| | hour before testing.
|
| sunshine. Making jam wasn?t just a luxury
| |
| | The main thing is to keep your jam under
|
| sweet, it was a way of preserving the
| |
| | observation after the first half hour of
|
| summer sunshine a little longer, of
| |
| | boiling and sniff( to make sure it?s not
|
| giving your children some vitamins to
| |
| | burning on the bottom of the pan), test
|
| keep them strong, when the only things
| |
| | every 5 minutes with a drop on a cold
|
| growing in the garden were cabbage or
| |
| | plate. Let it cool for a couple of
|
| Brussels sprouts! I wonder if those
| |
| | minutes. If it starts feeling syrupy and
|
| children ate them without fuss? Your
| |
| | makes a string to your finger when you
|
| preserves would have been eked out to
| |
| | dip it, then that?s a good runny, syrupy
|
| last until spring brought new fresh
| |
| | jam. If a skin forms and wrinkles when
|
| growth with it.
| |
| | you push your finger through the drop of
|
| Our jam supplies usually just last
| |
| | jam then it?s a firmer set. If after an
|
| through until the next strawberry season.
| |
| | hour it still doesn?t get to either of
|
| I?m generous to start with, giving it
| |
| | those stages you might have to add more
|
| away as presents to friends, selling it
| |
| | lemon juice and boil it up again for
|
| at the market for our school, then,
| |
| | another twenty minutes or so then start
|
| strawberry season over, I count the jars
| |
| | testing all over again. You can tell if
|
| and begin to get more parsimonious. After
| |
| | it is getting there as the bubbles start
|
| all bought jam is now unheard of in the
| |
| | looking more syrupy, a slower rolling
|
| family, I?m the only one who eats
| |
| | boil.
|
| marmalade, which fills the winter jam
| |
| | Have your jars ready. 1kg of fruit makes
|
| gap, so the strawberry and apricot jam
| |
| | about three medium sized jars. I usually
|
| has got to last, come what may.
| |
| | sterilise mine by pouring boiling water
|
| My strawberry jam recipe for success? (
| |
| | into clean, dry jars up to the top (they
|
| and please note that this is just how I
| |
| | must be dry though, if there are drops of
|
| make it? I?m not an expert and don?t even
| |
| | cold water in they can crack). Then when
|
| have a jam thermometer, but I guess they
| |
| | the jam is ready, pour out the hot water
|
| didn?t in the old days either. These are
| |
| | and ladle in the jam, right to the top,
|
| just hints and tips gathered from making
| |
| | put on a circle of either waxed or baking
|
| my own mistakes and from the advice of my
| |
| | paper and then the lid. Tighten the lid
|
| sister-in-law.)
| |
| | now while it?s hot for a good seal. The
|
| Extremely simple ingredients, but results
| |
| | spills of jam are easier to wipe off
|
| vary wildly from the runny (running right
| |
| | while it?s still hot too, hold with a
|
| off your toast runny) to the thick (spoon
| |
| | cloth though, hot is really HOT!
|
| stands up in it) for no apparent reason ?
| |
| | If all this is sounding a bit laborious,
|
| well the length of time cooking together
| |
| | you can always try waiting for the
|
| with the amount of pectin are the reasons
| |
| | apricot season. Apricots are far less
|
| but you can?t always tell about the
| |
| | temperamental, have plenty of pectin and
|
| pectin in advance. Strawberries are very
| |
| | set more easily?. But hey.. strawberries
|
| low in pectin, which is what makes jam
| |
| | are worth the effort and it?s mainly
|
| set and the riper they are the less there
| |
| | patience you need, not technique. There
|
| is. If they are wet that also dilutes the
| |
| | is a huge satisfaction from seeing the
|
| pectin (let them dry on kitchen towel or
| |
| | jars lined up on the shelf, to see you
|
| a dishcloth before preparing). So
| |
| | through the winter. Good luck!
|