jam making 101

My sister and I decided to try our hand at making our own jam last week. And it was quite an undertaking. In addition to procuring canning jars (which you buy at most hardware stores, but also Zabar's) and A LOT of fruit, we also had to get some special canning equipment including curved tongs (to remove the jars from boiling water), a special funnel (to get the jam into the jars), and a magnetic lid wand (so you contaminate the lids by touching them).

We relied heavily on Williams-Sonoma's "The Art of Preserving" for instructions and recipes. It's a great cookbook with recipes for both sweet and savory preserved food and also recipes that include preserved food as an ingredient. Over two days, we made their mixed berry preserves, plum blueberry preserves, and peach preserves. Once she got the basic formula down (fruit + lemon juice + sugar), Kristy also ad libbed a recipe for peach raspberry preserves.

There are many time consuming steps involved in making jam in addition to washing, cutting, sometimes peeling, and cooking fruit. For example, you need to sterilize the jars and lids before using them and then keep them warm in a large pot of simmering water so they won't crack when you fill them with the very hot jam. The canning lids also need to spend some time in a pot of simmering water before you place them on top of the jars, using the aforementioned magnetic wand. Once filled, the jars need to return to a pot of water to boil for ~20 minutes, then removed from the water and left to seal and cool on a rack. Once the jars reach room temperature, they can keep on a shelf for up to a year!

Our first batch of jam was problematic. We did not fill the jars high enough (in canning parlance, we left too much "headspace") and the lids never sealed. This innocent mistake required us to empty all of the jars, resterilize them, refill them, reboil them, etc. It was quite frustrating to say the least. Later batches went more smoothly.

If you have a big kitchen, a lot of free time, and and even larger amount of patience, I definitely recommend home preserving. It is a nice way to prolong your enjoyment of seasonal produce, though not inexpensive. In fact, it is undoubtedly cheaper to buy a jar of Smuckers than it is to make your own jar of strawberry jam. But much less satisfying.

For more information on canning, including a step-by-step illustrated tutorial, check out the website for Ball, the leading make of home food preservation equipment.