May - Jam Making

It’s spring, and I know it because the days are getting longer and the berries are popping. It’s time to fire up the stove and make jam, people. Any kind you like, though strawberries and rhubarb are “on” in most parts of the country right now, and I might suggest some version of one or the two together. This post will focus on those ingredients, but feel free to make whatever you want. Feel free to make it your own with spices, extracts and herbs to change the flavor profile.

Jam is super easy to make, being a more rustic, less fussy preserve than jelly or marmalade. Fruit, sugar, lemon. Don’t even worry about adding pectin for gelling. Most fruit has enough natural pectin, as long as it’s ripe and fresh. Also, leaving it out will avoid a stiff, chalky tasting jam that costs less to make! The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook is an excellent reference and recommends adding pectin only for “jellies made solely with low-pectin fruits (melons, figs, mulberries); marmalades whose liquid portion lacks pectin; and rarely, jams made with low-pectin fruits.”

Once you make the jam, you can eat it promptly from the fridge, freeze it, hot pack it (no canning, but everything – jars, lids, jam MUST be hot to seal properly), or can it in a hot water bath canner. Canning is not scary! Jam is about the safest thing, too, because both acid and sugar are preserving agents. It’s the low-acid items that are more risky, but even those are safe as long as you follow a canning recipe to ensure proper pH. Jam has more leeway - recipes can be tweaked without compromising safety.

The key to jam making is working with small quantities. It cannot be made in big batches because the whole idea is to cook off the water quickly so you preserve the fresh flavor of the fruit. So, a single recipe usually makes between 6 and 8 half-pints. Unless you want to be at it all day, start with a single batch. If you really want to stock the pantry, go ahead and make multiple batches. 

There are endless links out there for jam recipes. You can adapt any of them for freezing, hot packing of canning. A few ideas below:

• My mother-in-law Debbie makes the most amazing freezer jam. I don’t have her recipe, but here’s a similar one for No-Can Strawberry Jam.
• Here’s a hot-pack recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves.
• This simple low-sugar Strawberry Jam recipe requires macerating the berries, lemon and sugar overnight to draw out the juices. There’s also a great explanation of how to hot water bath can.
• This easy hot pack Rhubarb Jam recipe requires macerating the berries, lemon and sugar overnight to draw out the juices. If you can find the red rhubarb stalks instead of green, the color will be prettier. Both will taste amazing!

Canning Resources:

Food In Jars - Canning 101

Ball Canning & Preserving

The USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning

UC Coop Extension: Strawberry Preservation

Canning Tips:

1. Ball jars are sold at hardware stores, and they come with the classic two-piece lids that are safe for canning. For jam, I like 8 oz.
2. Most dishwashers have a sterilize setting, so you can put your jars in, run it and have them hot and ready to fill by the time the jam is set.
3. Testing for the Gel Point
4. When screwing the lids on, just tighten to “fingertip tight”. You want the air to be able to escape as the jars boil, to create the vacuum seal.
5. After jars are filled and the lids are on, don’t tilt them sideways or let them fall over in the pot.
6. After 24 hours of cooling, test that jars sealed properly by removing the rings and lifting up by the lid. If the jar lifts, you have a proper seal.
7. Store jars with the rings off. If the seal breaks, the lid will come off and you’ll see the seepage.
8. Canning is NOT scary! It’s a short learning curve. It's empowering. Do it a few times, and you won’t have to look at the instructions much. And you will brim over with confidence and satisfaction every time you open your pantry or gift away a jar.

Happy jamming!

Results:

Lea's Rhubarb and Strawberry Jam