I made more jam !

The baby and I went shopping at the farm stand and at the discount club. We got 3 quarts of Jersey strawberries at the farm stand, and a thing of California strawberries at the discount club. Tonight it was the Jersey berries.

J hulled and edited the berries while I watched the baby. I then sterilized my jars and started chopping berries. This was the recipe off the sure-gel pectin package, same as last time I made strawberry jam. "Learning by doing", also known as "practice makes perfect" does indeed work for jam. I was much faster, much smoother, and the jam is MUCH better.

Differences between this jam and the last jam.

1. The berries were riper and tastier
2. I did not add any lemon juice
3. I did add a little oil to keep the frothing down
4. I measured my berries and sugar more carefully, leveling the sugar and using the 2-cup measure not the 4-cup measure for the berries.
5. Because it did not froth, I did not overboil the jam and sugar

We made 5 pints of jam from 2 quarts of strawberries - we are still getting more jam than the recipe expects. I tasted the stuff left in the bowl - it was absolutely spectacular. I am very happy with my jam.

Tomorrow I will jam up the California berries. They are a little woody and not as tasty as the local berries. I intend to hull them, chop them, and then smell/taste them. I may very well add something to the California jam to cover the mediocre berries. The leading contender is the seeds from a vanilla pod, which is what Jamie Oliver uses on his Food TV recipe, or a bit of nutmeg, which is what goes in a strawberry-rhubarb pie.

And so to go put things away. I want to do some more editing before I go to sleep.

Posted by Red Ted at June 15, 2003 09:09 AM | TrackBack