Preserving Summer

[Priscilla]

Got a flat of strawberries, which will be prepped and left overnight for preserve-making tomorrow.

[amccomb]

I've been thinking of using some of the rhubarb growing in my friend's yard for preserving. I've been thinking rhubarb and orange and whiskey, or rhubarb and apple. ANy other ideas, besides rhubarb and strawberry?

What else is coming into season that can be put up?

I missed Seville orange and Meyer lemon season.

[jackal10]

rhubarb and ginger

[hjshorter]

rhubarb and ginger

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Good call. Adding it to my list.

[momlovestocook]

I've been thinking of using some of the rhubarb growing in my friend's yard for preserving.  I've been thinking rhubarb and orange and whiskey, or rhubarb and apple.  ANy other ideas, besides rhubarb and strawberry?

What else is coming into season that can be put up?

I missed Seville orange and Meyer lemon season. 

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rhubarb jam recipes here

I made rhubarb and ginger jam from epicurious this week and it was good(rhubarb, crystallized ginger, sugar and grated lemon rind).

Sandra

[Kayaksoup]

I made a Strawberry, Rhubarb and Vanilla Bean jam two weeks back based on one of Christine Ferber's recipes. I am going to try some Rhubarb and Ginger this weekend.

Last weekend I made and preserved Strawberry Chipotle BBQ Sauce. \

Its that time of year again. I love preserving...

[binkyboots]

Finally my copy of mes confitures arrived at borders (been on back order, oh, forever!)

today we went to a pick your own berry farm, brought back three kilos of raspberries and two of tayberries (like huge raspberries with an earl grey/smoky edge to them)

raspberries are being done three ways, raspberry and bitter chocolate jam, raspberry and star anise jam and finally raspberry with rosewater.

the rasp/rosewater one is finished and jarred (I always did the upside down jar thing, so far I've had perfect results, no troubles with keeping) my tester bowl was delicious. the others are chilling overnight.

the chocolate one is heavenly, I cant wait to boil it tommorow, I swear if I didn't have guests sleeping upstairs near the fridge I'd go get it right now!

tayberries, I'm planning to do one lot as straight tayberry jam and am doing one as a tayberry tea jelly... with their smoky flavour that might be delicious.

so far I've made the juice for jelly, 2 kilos of tayberries, the contents of one earl grey teabag (lady grey might have been better) a few green apples and a lemon sliced, cooked a bit with two litres of water until the apples are mushy and the berries gone to pieces.

will measure the juice and then the usual sugar pint/pound maths.... will see how that works out tomorow.

going back to pyo farm soon for tummelberries, jostaberries and redcurrants!

my next project, banana jam, I'm fancying the chocolate banana one, but, I'm worried, will it be horribly slimy? in fact, banana jam in general worries me, got a foolproof and delicious recipe? I'm all ears.... will most likely try miss ferber's choconana one tommorow or monday.

Edited July 23, 2005 by binkyboots (log)

[mukki]

I've made Christine Ferber's banana-chocolate "jam" and, given my inclinations, it's ok as made per her directions. It kind of produces a chocolate "sauce" with chunks of banana in it. The sauce tastes wonderful -- a nice banana-chocolate flavor, but I don't care for the banana slices (I'm not a fan of banana in its natural state). I think next time I'd try to blend them in a little more. Plus, I usually just put jam on toast and the chocolate bread combo doesn't appeal to me. I imagine that if you like chocolate on yogurt, it would be really good that way. I enjoy Brown Cow's chocolate yogurt, so maybe I should try that.

I've also made the apricot vanilla bean jam and we love that one. I use Blenheims and it's a favorite.

[binkyboots]

ah, thank you!

I have the banana and chocolate mix in the fridge right now, just chilling till I get time to boil it up. I'm glad you posted, I was wondering if the slices were going to stay sliced or disolve into banana mush. I'll try leaving them as are this time.

the chocolate raspberry is delicious, I'd love to fill a cake with that.

[hathor]

Once again, eG to the rescue, very glad some one resurrected this thread!

Yesterday, we noticed that the elderberry tree was just hanging with fruit. So we picked some, and as an experiment made 2 kinds of jam, one with sugar and one with local honey (I was going for DOC on this jam ). Both came out great, and tommorow I'm planning on putting on long pants and finding a ladder.

Couple of questions: what's the difference between: jam-jelly-preserves-conserves?

My canning books are all back in NY, and I'm in Italy...so I'm a little lost. I'm going to try and get some reference books, but by the time they get here, the season will be over, so please forgive my questions. Its been awhile since I've done serious canning, but the fruit right now is just fabulous and extremely cheap.

Anybody know what can be done with watermelon? I've had the watermelon rind jelly, but it didn't exactly rock my world.

I miss berries....all this talk of strawberry jam is making me homesick....

[viva]

Pickled watermelon rind?

**with prosciutto or salmon**

[jackal10]

Jam is with whole fruit or pulp,

Jelly is with clear juice

In the European Union the product names "Jam", "Extra Jam", "Jelly" have specific technical meanings and regulations governing such things as the minimum amount of fruit, or the maximum amount of sulpher dioxide preservative. The regulations have been hard fought, with many national interests - for example is Carrot Jam a Jam, since carrots are not fruits. Marmelades, fruit curds and mincemeats have whole chapters to themselves.

http://www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/Consul...sconsultengland

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/jamregs.pdf

Conserve is not a regulated food name, so can be applied to anything. It usually means a fruit spread that does not fall into the regulated categories - such as a jam with less than 35% fruit.

Edited July 25, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[beccaboo]

Does anyone know what 'vineyard peaches'--called for in many of Christine Ferber's recipes--are? I just made some peach and blackberry jam using nectarines instead of vineyard peaches, and I am wondering how much my jam will differ from Ferber's.

[trillium]

I think there is a note somewhere in the book about it? Anyway, I think she mostly means just-picked, tree-ripened, and near-by, since we all don't live near vineyards with peaches growing in them. I think any preserve made with fruit from where you live will be different then hers, because different varieties are grown for climate and taste reasons in different parts of the world. I don't think that is always a bad thing, if you choose with care. For example, I think some of the old berry varieties I can buy from my local, dedicated and slightly nutty farmer are much tastier then the ones that she recommends (like the Meeker).

regards,

trillium

Edited August 10, 2005 by trillium (log)

[anzu]

Does anyone know what 'vineyard peaches'--called for in many of Christine Ferber's recipes--are?  I just made some peach and blackberry jam using nectarines instead of vineyard peaches, and I am wondering how much my jam will differ from Ferber's.

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I think this is the English name she is using for a peach variety that I've come across in France - peche de vignes (there should be a circonflex over the e in peche).

I've only come across them in France. I couldn't even find them in the far north of France, but have seen them in Burgundy and places further south from there. I tried to google for them to find a picture, but couldn't find one.

It's a deep red, almost all the way through. As far as looks are concerned, think of the peach equivalent of blood oranges.

The taste is wonderful, too. If ever in France (are they actually elsewhere??) at the right season, look out for them. If you're not there at the right time, peche de vignes icecream is wonderful too, though the ripe, fresh fruit, eaten at the peak of ripeness and dripping everywhere, cannot be surpassed.

With out any real basis, and definitely without any proper knowledge whatsoever, I've always assumed that the name of these peaches meant that the trees are grown in an espaliered shape, and not that the trees are actually grown in vineyards.

Nectarines are quite different in taste. I'm sure your jam will taste good, but it won't taste like jam made from peche de vignes.

[beccaboo]

Nectarines are quite different in taste. I'm sure your jam will taste good, but it won't taste like jam made from peche de vignes.

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I figured it wouldn't be the same, but I wondered. She has so many recipes calling for vineyard peaches, it's too bad they only exist in France. They sound good.

My jam turned out well though a little over-seedy. Every year I pick blackberries from the same bushes, and sometimes they have huge, crunchy seeds while other years they're barely discernible.

[beccaboo]

I made the peach saffron this weekend, and it uses the 221 degree thing.  I think it worked well, if anything it provided a set that's more than firm enough.

I think I wasted some saffron in the making of my peach jam.  Saffron mostly provides color, and I thought the yellow peaches were better than the white ones this week, so I went with yellow.  I contemplated just dropping the saffron, but then I thought it might still add something.  But in the end, I think it didn't alter either the color or the flavor very much.  Still a tasty jam, lovely to behold.

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I just made the saffron peach and, with your experience in mind, used about 20 threads of saffron instead of just 15. It's still subtle, but you can taste the saffron--sort of a pleasantly musty flavor that you might not realise is saffron unless you already know. Maybe Ferber uses fancy Kashmiri saffron instead of the cheap Spanish stuff I have?

I think her spicing tends to be overly-mild--last year I made the peach and raspberry jam with cardamom, and you couldn't taste the cardomom at all. And I used nice, freshly ground cardamom!

Edited August 12, 2005 by beccaboo (log)

[lperry]

I know this thread is an old one, but I go back to it every time I pull out the canning equipment. Thank you to Trillium for starting it.

Last week I went blackberry picking, made the blackberry jam from Ferber's book, and added a little port at the end just to make it richer. Because the berries were sour to begin with (it's been very dry here), it is just the right level of sweet/tart. I'm hoping to get to a farm stand this weekend for peaches. Farmers complain about droughts, but they make for lovely intense flavors in fruit.

Is anyone else preserving?

[mukki]

I know this thread is an old one, but I go back to it every time I pull out the canning equipment.  Thank you to Trillium for starting it.

Last week I went blackberry picking, made the blackberry jam from Ferber's book, and added a little port at the end just to make it richer.  Because the berries were sour to begin with (it's been very dry here), it is just the right level of sweet/tart.  I'm hoping to get to a farm stand this weekend for peaches.  Farmers complain about droughts, but they make for lovely intense flavors in fruit.

Is anyone else preserving?

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This summer I've made Blenheim apricot-vanilla bean jam (as usual), black mulberry jam (which I think is going to be very nice), blackberry jam, boysenberry jam and nectarine jam. All are based on Ferber's recipes, even though she doesn't have mulberry and boysenberry recipes per se. You can really taste the difference between the boysenberry and blackberry jams with the former being much more complex and interesting. I've really fallen for boysenberries this year!

I also tried Bing cherry jam, but it turned out more like syrup and I didn't like the large pieces of cherries. So, I've been blending it into yogurt for cherry smoothies.

[cajungirl]

Is anyone else preserving?

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You bet So far this year, stewed figs, strawberry jam, pickled okra! God, I love this time of year

[natasha1270]

Fig and Pear Jam

green figs, bartlett pears, sugar, lemon juice & zest and vanilla.

These are my first attempts at making jam and I am a convert. Also, I currently have blackberry jam cooling on the counter and some tart cherry jam/not quite jam in the fridge.

N.

[lperry]

What a beautiful photograph, Natasha1270. Making homemade preserves can be addicting, so be ready with lots of jars and shelf space.

Yesterday, I happened across a farm stand where they were selling half-bushel boxes of the last of this year's peaches. I couldn't resist! Two batches of peach are macerating in the fridge, one with lemon balm. I didn't have lemon verbena so I couldn't copy Ferber's recipe exactly, so I doubled the lemon balm. I still have quite a few peaches and I'm thinking of making the peach-pinot noir-cinnamon jam. Has anyone made this one?

-L

[Waterzoy]

This morning I made the apple jam with julienne of four citrus fruits from Christine Ferber's book. You can't see the zest very well in this photo but there is a good citrussy flavour to the jam. I must give it a good stir when I open it as all the apple seems to have collected towards the top of the jar.

I've also made the green apple jelly, the fig and pear and the pear and chocolate jams from the same book.

For the fig and pear, I used dark purple figs because I couldn't get green ones. The flavour is good and the colour is beautiful.

The pear and chocolate is great with flaky pastries such as croissants. I was surprised to be most pleased with this one as it's the one I was least enthusiastic about making. I halved the recipe just to use up some pears which were beginning to go past their best so I was only able to fill one jar. I have really enjoyed it.

[Eilen]

Has anyone ever made huckleberry jam? My mother gave me 4 pounds of frozen huckleberries and I thought I would try jam. Can you even make jam from frozen berries? The only recipe that I thought might work is one for blueberry jam that calls for seven cups of sugar per four and a half cups of berries. That seems like way too much!

I've never even made jam before, so if those of you more experienced think it might be to difficult to do, please let me know!

Edited December 13, 2006 by Eilen (log)

[lperry]

I've made lots of blueberry jam, and you can make it from frozen berries. The large amount of sugar is probably to counteract the near absence of pectin in the berries. I assume there is lemon juice added as well? Both these things are necessary to make the jam jell properly. If you are feeling adventurous, you can add homemade pectin (from apples) to help jell the jam. -L