Jammin'

I absolutely LOVE making homemade jam...and of course, eating it!  My stock was non-existent and I knew that it was time to get some summer jams made.  I always like to have some around for family use and I like to have a bunch made up and ready to use as gifts---jam makes one of the very best, all-time gifts!!  You can grab it at the last minute when you've forgotten you were supposed to take something, you can use it for a sick friend, you can add a little piece of fabric tied with a ribbon to the top and make a fabulous birthday present, you can take a jar to all your neighbors for Christmas...the list is endless!! But, first you have to make the jam :)

I started with a batch of strawberry freezer jam--this is strictly for personal consumption!  I love the way freezer jam tastes SO fresh--like eating fresh strawberries.  It's hard to use as gifts because of the freezer factor...oh, darn, guess that means I have to eat it.

To start, you need to wash a couple of 1 cup sized plastic containers with lids.  Then, wash and stem about 2 pints of strawberries.  Crush them (1 cup at a time) until you have 2 cups of crushed strawberries. (Make sure you still have chunks left--jam has chunks!)  Put these in a large bowl.  Add 4 cups of sugar, stir well, and let sit for 10 minutes.  It will look like this:

Stir this mixture 2 or 3 times during the 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes are up, place 1 box of Sure Jell pectin in a small pan with 3/4 cup of water.  I always use Sure Jell!  I have used other types of pectin and never gotten the same results--and I especially don't like liquid pectin! 

When you have the pectin and water together in the pan, place it over high high and stir constantly until you bring it to a boil.  Make sure you stir constantly so it doesn't burn--nothing will ruin your jam faster than burnt pectin!  Once it reaches a boil, keep stirring for exactly 1 minute.  Remove from heat.

Stir the hot pectin mixture into your strawberry mixture.  You MUST stir continuously for at least 3 minutes, until the sugar is completely dissolved and no longer grainy.  I always set my timer because its amazing how you can fool yourself into thinking you've been stirring for at least 10 minutes but you look down at the timer and it's been, say, 30 seconds!!

After I've stirred for 3 minutes, I always add 1 more minute just to be completely sure that the sugar is dissolved.  Then, pour your mixture into those plastic containers that you prepared earlier.  Just make sure to leave 1/2" head space---that's the distance between the top of the jam and the lid to the container.  You need this for any expansion that will occur during the freezing process. 

Put lids on these puppies and put them in a spot where they can sit for 24 hours to set  up.  Your jam will NOT be set at this point, so don't freak out!  After 24 hours, put them in the freezer and you're done---good job!!

Now, making regular cooked jam is a little different proposition, but one that I love!  I decided to make 3 different kinds of jam so that I'd have some variety in my stash.  The process is the same but the measurements are different.

First you have to clean your jars.  Make sure they're washed in hot, soapy water (or run them through your dishwasher) and remove all traces of any kind of crud.  After they're clean, place them in a sinkful of hot, really hot, the hottest, even boiling if you want, water.

Being in hot water will sterilize them and will also help prevent any broken jars when you add boiling jam to the jar. And believe me when I tell you from past experience that you DON'T want exploding jars :)  Next, you need to take the seals for your jars and place them in a pan and pour boiling water over them.  From this point on, don't touch the inside of your seals with your hands because you don't want to add bacteria to the jam.

Now, you need to place a large, tall pot ( I use my big soup pot) half-full of water on the stove and let it start coming to a boil while you prepare the fruit for the jam.  This pot will be your water-bath to seal the jars.

Now you're ready to prepare the fruit.  I started with strawberry jam, so I washed and stemmed about 4 pints of strawberries, crushing them 1 cup at a time, until I had 5 cups of crushed strawberries.  There's no reason to crush the daylights out of the fruit!!  When it starts cooking, the fruit really breaks down and you want to leave lots of chunks in your jam.
Place the fruit in a large bowl.  In another bowl, measure out 7 cups of sugar and have it standing by.

Put a large pan on the stove.  Add the crushed strawberries, 1/2 tsp. of butter, and 1 box of Sure Jell pectin.  The butter is optional, but it will prevent your jam from getting all foamy and needing skimming and I'm all for anything that keeps me from having to skim the jam at the end so I can save a little time.

It's time to start cooking!!  Turn your heat on high and start stirring.  Stir constantly until the mixture comes to a full, roiling boil.  (There's some debate on terms here--some people say "rolling" and others--like my Grandma---said "roiling." Either way, it means a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when you're stirring it.  I've always stuck with roiling because that's the way my Grandma said it and grandma's are always right, right?)

When you reach the roiling boil, keep stirring for exactly 1 minute--this activates the pectin which is what makes your jam set up so you definitely want to activate it!  USE YOUR TIMER!!  After you've stirred for 1 minute, it's time to dump in the sugar.  Put it in all at once.

This is why you need the sugar pre-measured--so you can dump it in all at once and get to stirring right away.  When you stir in the sugar, something magical happens!  The color changes and the fruit gets all bright and glisteny and makes me want to dive in headfirst and go to town!  But, then I remember that it's over 300 degrees at this point and I would cause significant burns to my face and neck (plus I'd have no jam for my clean jars) so I restrain myself and just keep stirring.  Stir, stir, stir, stir, until you bring it back to that roiling boil.  Now, be honest here!  Don't quit when you see a bubble or two.  Keep stirring until it won't stir down and even then, I give it a few more seconds  just to make sure.

Be careful while you're stirring here and use a long-handled spoon!  There will be steam pouring off of the pot and you have to be mindful of the "bloop" factor---that's when stuff is really hot and boiling and it "bloops" out and burns your hand!  Not fun!  When you've got it to that roiling boil stage, pull it off the heat.  I like to stir it just a little longer to calm down the "blooping" before I start ladling it into my clean jars.

You need to do this ladling quickly because the jars are hot, the jam is hot, and we want them to stay hot so that when the jars are placed in the hot water bath, they won't explode!  Fill the jar, leaving 1/4" head space.  Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean cloth, making sure that there's not anything on the rim.  Using tongs, or a lid magnet picker upper thingy, pick up your hot seal (without touching the inside with your hands) and place on top of the clean rim of the jar.  Screw on a band tightly (but don't crank it down so tightly that it doesn't leave any expansion room.)  Once you've jarred all of the jam, it's time to put your jars into the water bath.

This is a jar picker-upper thingy that makes the whole process so much easier and safer!  I've done this before with tongs or spoons or whatever was handy and it's just not such a good idea.  Using the jar tool, place your jars CAREFULLY into the boiling water bath.  Make sure that all the jars are completely covered with water.

Bring the water back to a full boil and boil your jam for 10 minutes.  Using your jar picker-upper thingy again, remove the jars from water bath and carefully place them upright on a towel--I usually pile up two or three to make a nice soft spot for the jars.  This spot needs to be somewhere out of the way where the jars can sit, unmolested, for a full 24 hours to cool completely.  This is really important!!  My family has always known the rule about not touching the jars but it seems like they always want to come in and pick them up and say something like "OOO! How pretty" or "What kind did you make?" or whatever and I'm always having to remind them NOT TO TOUCH the jars!!  Your jam will NOT be set up at this point, so don't freak out!  It's still hot liquid and will be sloshy.  After the 24 hour cooling period, you'll have lovely, nicely set jam, I promise.

My favorite part of jam-making is the leftovers!  Sometimes when you make a batch, you'll have just a bit of jam left that won't make a whole jar, so just put it in a little bowl--restrain yourself here!!--and have a fabulous treat with your dinner!!  YUM--fresh jam!

One of my all-time favorite fruits are cherries!!  I adore them!!  I wait all year for cherry season to arrive and I gorge myself on them until they're gone again for another year!  So, I always want to make cherry jam while I have this wonderful, luscious, juicy fruit in season--then, I can enjoy it all year long :)  But, I wouldn't want to make cherry jam without my handy dandy cherry pitter--it's a must-have!!!  It pops those pits out like nobody's business and makes short work of a large bag of cherries.  The principles of jam-making are the same, only the measurements change.  So, to make a batch of cherry jam you will need 4 cups of chopped, pitted cherries and 4 3/4 cups of sugar.

Next, I decided to make peach jam with some luscious South Carolina peaches!  You will need 4 cups of peeled, chopped peaches, 5 1/2 cups of sugar, and 2 T. lemon juice (I didn't have any fresh lemons in the house, so I just used the little squeezy guy from the fridge :)  The lemon juice will prevent the peaches from darkening when they're cooked.  Add the lemon juice to the peaches when you put in the butter and the pectin.

There you have it--a full morning's worth of jam making!!  Just a word about batches---never try to make more than one batch at a time---bad mistake!!  You think you're going to save time, but that's not the case.  You'll end up with watery jam, you'll have to wait anyway because your water bath won't hold that many jars, and you'll waste all that time and money--don't do it!!  Also, make sure you wash all your jam-making equipment between each batch to avoid any contamination.  Now, all of these were just basic recipes that you can find in your pectin box--nothing fancy.  But, in an upcoming blog (once my jalapeno peppers ripen up), I'll share with you my own, world-famous pepper jelly recipe!! Don't miss it!!

Happy jammin'!!