Jam
Ever since I was a little girl my dream job was to be a stay at home mom. I set my sights high! In my daydreams I would make breakfast for my kids, do laundry, garden, read during the kiddles naptime, lounge in comfy clothes (read: wear sweats 24/7), maybe work out (read: maybe), and have a delicious dinner on the table for my husband when he comes home from work. Like that could ever happen now! I have come to terms with the fact that I may not get to be a stay at home mom (dang you, economy!) but I can still be a great little Susie Homemaker.
I love being crafty, making food from scratch, and getting my hands dirty in the yard. I like stitching personalized kitchen towels and baking cookies just because. I would say I am pretty dang good at the modified and working version of a housewife (minus the being married part...) (Wooowww... - Cory). To further my education in being a hands on and homey kind of lady, last year I was introduced to jamming!
I know, jamming and canning can seem scary. There is so much equipment and it can seem like such a process. Not to mention the scariness of waiting for your cans to make the pop so that you know it is sealed.
I was introduced to jamming by my second mom, Cindy, the Walter White of the jam world. She is my best friends’ mom and one of the women I look up to the most. She learned many years ago and wanted to teach me how, so I agreed. I spent a lovely Sunday morning at her home jamming away. She taught me all the secrets she knew and we made some delicious jam. Last year we made strawberry jam and blackberry jam. Since then, I experimented on my own (thanks to the college graduation gift she gave me, which was a full canning kit!) and made some delicious apple butter that I gave as gifts at Christmas. This summer, just a few weeks ago, we had our second jamming session. I brought my sister along to learn as well and the three of us talked, ate pickles, drank beer, and made some amazing jam in her lovely kitchen. The two recipes I will share below are from what we made a few weeks ago; the standard and delicious Strawberry Jam and our delightful and perfect experimental combination of Apricot and Raspberry Jam.
Please do not be too scared to try making jam or try canning. It is not as daunting as it seems and is a great weekend activity to do with the ones you love.
*There are many different methods and ways to approach canning but the equipment and tips below are what have helped me make successful jam every time.
Ingredients
Equipment List
Canning Pot/Water Bath Canner
Jar Rack
Tongs/Jar Lifter
Candy Thermometer
Canning Jars
Jar Funnel
Strawberry Jam Ingredients
8 Cups Mashed Strawberries
8 Cups Sugar
1 Tablespoon Butter
*Yields 10 ½ Pints
Apricot Raspberry Jam Ingredients
8 Cups Chopped Apricots
2 Pints Raspberries
6 Cups Sugar
¼ Cup Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon Butter
*Yields 7 ½ Pints
The first step to making either jam is filling up the water bath pot with water and heating it up. It can take so long to boil if you have a crappy burner! The second step is to run the canning jars through the dishwasher to sanitize them and heat them up. Try to time it so it is drying just before you are ready to put the jam into the jars. The reason for this, other than making sure they are clean, is to make sure they are hot so when we put the piping hot jam into the jar it doesn’t break and shatter. Put the lids for the jars in a small saucepan full of simmering water on the stove.
For the Strawberry Jam: Wash and chop the strawberries and put them in a big mixing bowl. Use a masher, spoon, fork, or whatever works best for you to mash up the berries. I like to leave little chunks in mine but you can mash them to your own preference. Mash until you have 8 cups of mashed strawberries when you measure them out.
Put the mashed berries into a pot and mix in the sugar. Turn on the stove to a medium high heat and attach your candy thermometer to the side of the pot, making sure the tip of the thermometer doesn’t touch the bottom of the pan. The goal now is to bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Once the mixture starts to boil you can stop stirring constantly and just do a few stirs every minute. Also, make sure to turn down the burner a bit. When the mixture starts to foam, add the tablespoon of butter. This is used to keep the foaming to a minimum. Now, we wait to get the jam to 220 degrees. This took about 45 minutes for us.
For the Apricot Raspberry Jam: Chop the apricots up into small pieces and put them in a pot. Attach the candy thermometer to the pot, making sure the tip of the thermometer does not touch the bottom of the pan. Mix the apricots with the sugar and bring to a boil on a medium high heat stove, stirring constantly.
Once boiling, add the whole raspberries to the mixture and gently stir them in. You can stop mixing constantly and mix frequently, at least once a minute to make sure it doesn’t start to burn. Also, make sure to turn the burner down a bit. Add the tablespoon of butter when the mixture starts to foam and it will help keep the foaming down. Now we wait to get the jam to 220 degrees. This took us about 30 minutes.
Finishing process for both jams: Make sure the water in the caning bath is boiling and get the hot jars out of the dish washer. Also, make sure the jam is at 220 degrees before putting it in the jar!
Line up your jars so they are ready for filling and take some of the lids out of the saucepan to let them dry for a moment. Using a jar funnel and a ladle, pour the hot jam into the jar. Make sure to leave a quarter inch headroom at the top of the jar because you do not want to fill it up too much. Many jar funnels out there have measures on them and I have found mine extremely helpful when filling my jars.
Next, wipe any stray jam off the rim of the jars. You need to make sure to get any excess off or it will mold! Place the lids on the jars and twist them closed. Make sure not to twist them too tightly! Place the jar rack inside the canning pot and using tongs or a jar lifter, place the jars of jam into the jar rack inside the canning pot. Make sure the jars do not touch the sides of the pot, the bottom of the pot, or another jar. When using a canning rack this is usually not an issue. The water in the canning bath must cover the top of the jars by about an inch or so, so add more water until you achieve this. Put a lid on the pot and then bring the water to a boil.
Once the water is boiling again, it will take the strawberry jam 5 minutes to process and the apricot raspberry jam 10 minutes to process. Once your timer goes off, use the tongs or a jar lifter to carefully bring the jars out. Set them on a towel on the counter to cool off.
Now is the nerve-wracking part! To be able to store these jams in the cupboard (for up to one year!) you need to make sure they are sealed. You will know they have sealed when you hear the little POP sound. That is the middle of the lid going down and sealing the jar. Sitting there and waiting for them all to POP is so fun! We usually scream in excitement. If you cannot tell which ones have popped, lightly run your finger over the top of the lid and press down in the middle. If it pops back up and still moves it has not yet sealed. If you press down and it does not move, congratulations! You have successfully made your jam! (Some jars just need a slight touch to pop down and sea.)
Once the jars are sealed, leave them on the counter for 24 hours to settle and then place them in the cupboard or pantry and use them when needed. If some of your jars do not seal, not to worry. Just put them in the fridge and use them for the next week or so. The sealing process is just to seal them for long-term storage outside of the refrigerator. You can always make these recipes and skip the processing steps all together if you plan on needing a lot of homemade jam at once!
Use the jam on toast, muffins, scones, biscuits, in fillings for a cake, or my all time favorite, a good old-fashioned peanut butter and jelly sandwich!
Rock on,
Anna Ghirardelli