A couple of weekends ago, we made some jam (strawberry lime & peach plum) at Sam's new "living in sin" pad but Jesse is making an honest woman of her and you can read their story here. At first it was simply going to be 2 different kinds of kitten jam, but Sam suggested that fruit was less messy.Oh and check this out, they have this very interesting calendar, hmm..what comes to mind when you look at it? okay, may be I am just a big pervy weirdo.
Sam and I were in charge of getting the fruit, while Maianna brought some supplies and dinner (yummy sloppy joes and not the manwich kind, plus a tasty salad with avo and beets, i love beets...it was deleesh).
As I have stated before, I am not good at following directions or recipes and sure enough our jam didnt "jam" or jell up as we would have liked it to but hey, its still pretty tasty on toast or in swedish pancakes. We tried one recipe without cheating (using boxed commercial pectin) and the other we went ahead and cheated but used too much fruit slosh. I never knew how much damn sugar was involved AND how much time it takes to really just have it cook down to the right consistency. But once its all done, its pretty fast and it gets hectic.
If you want to make your own jam, I would suggest buying a canning kit, or having the following items:
(2) large pots
tongs
a wide mouthed funnel
Jars come in different sizes, half pint, pint etc...You need one pot to boil all the jars and lids, let it sit and boil until you are ready with the jam to fill it up.
here is what we tried to follow, I hear Maianna cheated and made a better batch with her Mom the following day - strawberry rhubarb. bitch, that was my idea. okay, so I found the recipe (and idea) online. whatever.
Strawberry Lime Jam
2 quarts of fresh strawberries - hulled and sliced
zest of 2 limes (or to taste)
1/4 cup lime juice (or to taste)
7 cups sugar
1 package pectin
using a food processor or a blender, blend the fresh strawberries depending on the consistency you like your jam. I like mine a bit chunky, with more random bits and small/medium pieces of strawberries. I liked using a bit more zest, the green specks suspended are pretty neat and the more lime juice adds a bit of tang and kick.
Once processed, put the strawberries into the other large pot over high heat adding only half of the sugar and the whole package of pectin (there is also low or no sugar pectin. you should also never substitute liquid pectin for powder pectin or vice versa. whoops. kidding, we didnt screw up that bad).
Mix and let it boil. Once it comes to a boil add the remaining sugar. Sometimes it gets foamy, so you can either do one or two things. One, skim off the foam using a large spoon - this is good if, well, you aren't lazy like I am and you don't like butter which is the second option. Second easy way and mighty tasty, you can add a bit (about a tablespoon, depending but not less) of butter and it usually calms the foam down. You should turn down the heat now. You will see how the consistency has changed and once out of the heat it will cool down to even a more jam like consistency.
In the meanwhile, the other pot should have been boiling..leave boiling with all the jars and lids you will be using to ladle in the jam. This is also where the funnel comes in handy if you have one - a wide mouthed one that is. They come in a canning kit which is available at Wal-Mart or Target or even Longs sometimes.
Using tongs to pull out a jar, one at a time, place down and fill with jam (leave a bit of room, but we hardly did). You can close em individually and immediately after you pour or you can just continue pouring in the jam in each jar that you have taken out of the boiling water and then lid them. In the canning kit, there is a little gadjet thats like a long stick that has a magnet at the end of it to grab the self sealing tops in the boiling pot - nifty, but if you dont have it - tongs will suffice. And if you dont have a funnel, a ladel will suffice as well. close tightly - perhaps using a towel cause the jars should be HOT, so careful. You will hear the jars sort of pop as they self seal...and viola, you've just made jam!
