And we hope you like jammin too.

Think beyond morning toast.  The underestimated jam deserves far more attention.  Think about mid-winter meat glazes of peach or plum.  Consider as filling for the perfect layered cake–cherry jam has become our birthday cake filling favorite, with apricot a close runner-up.  Spike your morning smoothie or yogurt parfait, bake sheets of fruit bars, and have every flavor for pb and j covered for the year’s lunches–all this with jam.

Jam has been historically a most excellent preservation of most fruit for millennia.  There’s a scene of outdoor jam cooking over an open fire on a farm in Tolstoy’s Anna Karinina that is both romantic and realistic.  All the women of Levin’s farm from head mistress to youngest girl take turns stirring, patiently stirring, the fruit of summer’s end over flames.  It is a beautiful, annual tradition of the harvest.

The process of preserving jam is today made easier by using pectin, but the process is  doable without pectin, though takes far longer, stirring and scraping at a full boil until the congealing sugars cause the fruit to thicken.  My older children chide me for my apparently constant instruction to “scrape the bottom.”

Scrape we must to keep the sugars of high heat bubbling fruit from sticking and burning in seconds.  For jam is easily burned, easily spoiled in huge batches with even a speck of burned flavor.  Though pectin makes cuts the second full boil to a mere ten minutes, it’s advisable to use an apron and heavy sleeves or mitts to keep from being burned by splatters of boiling sugary fruit.  The canning process is good hard work, not for the faint.

Here’s how to take your fresh fruit of almost any kind to preservation.

~Plum Jam Double Recipe~

13 cups chopped ripe plums

9 cups sugar

2 packages powdered pectin

1 T butter, to reduce froth when boiling

7-8 pint jars, new lids and bands

Yield: about 7 pints (plus a little jar for immediate tasting)

 

~Set out and have ready: funnel, jar lifter, large spoon, cloth to set hot jars, clean cloth for wiping jar rims.

~Rinse plums; pit and chop , measure and place in a large sauce pot.

~Fill canning pot and place all jars inside, setting burner on high to boil; this sanitizes, heats them for jam and gets your water going.

~Measure sugar into large bowl and set aside.

~In a small bowl, place lids and bands, ready to pour boiling water over to soak.

~Add pectin and butter to plums and combine; turn on high heat and be ready to constantly stir.

~While stirring and checking mixture, remove hot jars to a towel and pour boiling water over lids and bands.

~Bring fruit mixture to a full rolling boil (a boil that does not lessen when stirring) while stirring and scraping bottom of pot; stir in all sugar.

~Return to a full rolling boil, careful not to get splattered, using oven mitts or large lid to shield yourself; boil for timed 7 full minutes, again constantly stirring and scraping bottom; then test lifting the spoon to check if fruit is congealing.

~Remove jam from heat and immediately pour into prepared hot jars using funnel; leave 1/4 inch headspace.

~Using a clean cloth dipped in the boiling water bath, wipe rims of each jar (even a speck of fruit unseen on the rim can compromise sealing); secure lids with bands finger tight.

~Place pints in boiling water canner for 10 minutes; remove back to towel and tighten bands when cooled enough to touch.

~Let stand until sealed, or without movement for at least 12 hours.

Love from our kitchen to yours!  Gina @ Soul & Stomach