AwesomeBites

Category: Jams and Jelly

  • Sour Cherry Jam

    Sour Cherry Jam

    by Sandra Nickerson on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 8:41pm
    4 pounds of pitted and mashed sour cherries, which should yield about six cups of jammable fruit
    3 cups sugar
    1 package of low sugar pectin – the pink box.

    Put three pint jars or six half pints (or some combintion thereof) in your canning pot and bring to a boil.

    Combine fruit and sugar in a heavy, non-reactive pot. Bring to a boil and let bubble for a good twenty minutes, occasionally skimming the foam from the surface of the fruit as it develops. Add the pectin and boil for another five minutes. You want to cook it until it looks like boiling sugar – thick and viscous.

    Kill the heat, fill your jars, wipe rims, apply the lids and rings and process in the hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars from water and let cool on the countertop. When the jars are cool (I typically wait until overnight), remove the rings and test the seal by picking the jar up by the lid. If it stays put, your jars are good to store indefinitely.

    I love the flavor of sour cherries, so I didn’t add a drop of extra flavor to this jam. However, you are welcome to spice things up with cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, vanilla or orange (or anything else).
    This recipe is from “Food in Jars”

    I am getting hungry.  This can be added to pork gravy for a perfect sauce for tenderloin or pork chops!

  • Red Onion Marmalade

    4-6 large Red Onions
    2 T Olive Oil
    1 tsp dry mustard
    1 tsp thyme or sage
    1 tsp salt
    1 tsp course ground pepper
    1/4 cup balsalmic vinegar
    1/4 cup brown sugar

    Cut onions tops and bottoms off, slice from top to bottom into thin slices.
    In 2 T olive oil, cook onion slices with cover on so they become soft and translucent, stir often.

    With a fork, mix the dry mustard and thyme into the balsalmic vinegar and add to the onions. This keeps the seasonings mixed into the onions.

    Continue cooking as the onions carmelize and the balsalmic thickens.
    Taste, adjust flavors to your taste buds.

    I love this served hot or cold on burgers, roast beef or turkey sandwiches, warm on a broiled steak, or served next to your scrambled eggs in the morning.

    Enjoy!

    Update: August 2nd, 2010
    Dennis just made grilled cheese sandwiches and they were so good! Sharp Cheddar cheese and onion marmalade- great match on Sheepherders Bread. Remember when making to put cheddar on both sides of the bread and the onoin marmalade in the center.

    Cheese platter is in our future.

  • Blueberry Jam

    Blueberry Jam

    by Sandra Nickerson on Friday, April 2, 2010 at 8:14pm
    from Saving the Season

    BECKETT’S BLUEBERRIES

    2.5 lbs berries, about 8 cups

    1.5 lbs sugar, 3 heaping cups (I decided the straight 2:1 ratio suggested by the Blueberry Hill proprietor wasn’t enough to sweeten the berries to my taste)

    3″ cinnamon stick

    juice of 1/2 lemon

    1.5 tablespoon gin

    1 rinse and pick over berries to remove stems.

    2 put berries in a pot with a splash of water and heat gently until they start to sweat and soften. run the berries through a food mill, then return pulp to the pot and add sugar and cinnamon.

    3 bring to a boil and cook about 5 minutes until sufficiently thickened. stir in lemon juice and gin and return briefly to a boil. ladle into jars, seal and process in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes.

    YIELD
    5 pounds berries yielded 4 pints
    4 x 8 oz
    8 x 4 oz

  • Pear Butter with Cardamom

    Pear Butter with Cardamom

    Pear Butter with Cardamom

    by Sandra Nickerson on Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 10:27am
    10-12 Barlett Pears – Peel and dice
    6 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
    3 Cups White or Brown Sugar
    2 teaspoons Cardamom powder
    1 teaspoon salt

    Add lemon and sugar to diced pears and let sit for about an hour. You want juice to come out of the pears. Simmer on the stove and add the Cardamom powder and salt. Boil and still, cooking the mixture down until it is thick and the consistency you want. Use a stick blender to mash up the pears once they are falling apart. (I think it is best to let most of the juice cook out before you mash, because the thicker mixer is quicker to scorch.
    Taste and adjust seasoning.
    Can in water bath for 10 minutes.
    Very nice.

    Pear-Cardamom Butter

    Optionally: You can use orange juice for lemon, brown sugar instead of white and nutmeg instead of cardamom. And you can even use apples instead of pears. Have fun!

  • Meyer Lemon Marmalade

    • 6 Meyer lemons (1 1/2 pounds)
    • 4 cups water
    • 4 cups sugar

    Special equipment:

    Preparation

    Halve lemons crosswise and remove seeds. Tie seeds in a cheesecloth bag. Quarter each lemon half and thinly slice. Combine with bag of seeds and water in a 5-quart nonreactive heavy pot and let mixture stand, covered, at room temperature 24 hours.

    Bring lemon mixture to a boil over moderate heat. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until reduced to 4 cups, about 45 minutes. Stir in sugar and boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally and skimming off any foam, until a teaspoon of mixture dropped on a cold plate gels, about 15 minutes.

    Ladle hot marmalade into jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of top. Wipe rims with dampened cloth and seal jars with lids.

    Put jars in a water-bath canner or on a rack set in a deep pot. Add enough hot water to cover jars by 1 inch and bring to a boil. Boil jars, covered, 5 minutes and transfer with tongs to a rack. Cool jars completely.

    Cooks’ note: • Marmalade keeps, stored in a cool, dark place, up to 1 year.

  • Blenheim Apricot Jam

    Blenheim Apricot Jam

    Apricot Jam on Toast
    Add blanched and peeled apricot kernels to each jar before sealing. How many? I’m not sure. I put up half-pint jars with 3, 4, 5 and 6 kernels per jar.

    Fruit-to-sugar ratio by volume 3:2

    Fruit-to-sugar ratio by weight 5:4

    4.5 lbs (2 kg) pitted and halved Blenheim apricots or 12 cups loosely packed 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg) granulated sugar or 8 cups 2 small lemons

    1 Place prepared fruit in a ceramic bowl, add lemon juice and sugar. Cover with wax paper and macerate for several hours in the refrigerator.

    2 Transfer mixture to a heavy enameled pot and slowly bring to a full boil.

    3 Lower heat to a controlled boil, skim and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until mixture begins to reduce and thicken, and the apricot halves begin to break down. Check for a jell set at 20 minutes—I went to about 22 minutes with this batch, which should give me a luscious consistency that will mound in a spoon but slowly drip through the tines of a fork.

    4 Once the jam is sufficiently reduced, ladle into jars and seal. I processed the jars in a hot-water bath for 10 minutes, as suggested by Ball.

    4.5 lbs apricots yielded a scant 6 pints of jam 1 x pint jar 5 x 8 oz jars 5 x 4 oz jars plus a few ounces set aside for breakfast.