Peach Ginger Jam

CCO says this picture reminds him of those faces on Easter Island.

My mom was skeptical about this recipe. But she was similarly skeptical of the Strawberry Balsamic and that one turned out awesome. I think I won her over.

This jam takes 3/4 cup of fresh ginger. You could probably use ginger paste, the kind you find at Asian grocery stores if you didn't want to do all that peeling. The ginger gives the jam a big kick. No subtlety here.

Eat Rating: Awesome. (Only if you like ginger, though)
Difficulty: Medium. Requires a food processor, canning equipment.

(For a refresher on canning jam, see previous post on Strawberry Jam or check out this site from the USDA.)

Recipe yields about 3 pints or 6 half-pints.

Adapted from Mimi's Cyber Kitchen

3 cups peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped
3/4 cup fresh ginger, peeled and diced (LN: I recommend using the food processor)
1 lemon juiced (about 2 tbsp)
1/2 cup water
1 box pectin (1.75 oz or about 3/8 cup)
6 cups of sugar

Take the largest pot you own, fill halfway with water and set on a back burner over medium heat. You will use this later. Place your jars on a cookie sheet and slide into a cold oven. Turn up the heat to 250 degrees. Once it reaches temperature, turn off the oven but leave the jars inside. Place the jar lids and rings in a bowl and set aside.

Combine peaches, ginger, lemon juice, water and pectin in a large saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil. Add the sugar, then return to a boil. Cook 1 additional minute.

Use a ladle to pour some of the hot water from the large pot into the bowl with the lids and rings. This will sterilize them.

Remove a few jars from the oven with a clean dish towel. Ladle the hot jam into the jars, wipe clean the lip of the jars and affix a lid. Twist on a ring till finger tight, then place the filled jar in the large pot of hot water.

Repeat until you run out of jam. You want the jars in the large pot to be completely submerged in water. Add more water if necessary. Return water to a boil, then boil the jars for 10 minutes. Remove jars from pot. The tops should pop as the jars return to room temperature. If any of the jars have not popped within 24 hours, reboil.

The jam will keep unopened for up to a year. Once opened, finish the jam within 2-3 weeks.

Peach Vanilla Jam

Peach vanilla

It is finally August, which means two things: 1) Congress go away for five weeks and 2) I am finally allowed to go on vacation. Or in this year's case, staycation. My mom and I decided a great way to kick off my staycation would be to do an enormous canning project. On Saturday, we'd pick up a bushel of peaches and make jam and Sunday we'd do the same with tomatoes. We are nothing if not ambitious.

I realize now this was insane. We accidentally chose the hottest weekend in the year. Also canning requires a lot of standing. By the end I thought I might collapse. But I did end up with:
- 5 pints peach nectar
- 5 pints peach butter
- 5 pints peach jam
- 6 pints peach-ginger jam
- 4ish pints peach-vanilla jam
- 3 quarts peaches in rum

To avoid boring everyone, I'll post one recipe a week about Leah's adventures in canning. First up, peach vanilla jam.

A couple weeks ago, I was reading the Washington Post Food Section blog and saw this post on vanilla. I've always avoided cooking with vanilla beans, not so much because they are difficult but because of the expense. At my local grocery store, a bottle of one or two vanilla beans runs about $8. In the blog post, Monica Bhide mentions that vanilla beans are a lot cheaper if you buy them online. I looked at Saffron.com like she suggests and 1 lb of vanilla beans (that's 100-120) runs $20. I bought 1/2 lb of two types: Tahitian vanilla and Vanilla planifolia. (Vanilla Garlic has a good post on the different varieties of vanilla if you're interested.

Vanilla Beans

In this French-enclosure jar I bought specially of them, they'll keep forever. (Alright, maybe not forever but at least a couple years)

The Post had also done a big story complete with recipes on jam-making a few weeks back. Sadly it wasn't in time for my first jam session of the year, but I was intrigued by the recipe for Strawberry Vanilla. I googled, and came across this recipe. The jam is mostly peach with just a hint of vanilla. I think it's my favorite find so far. The recipe recommends starting 48 hours early and letting the vanilla beans sit in the sugar. You can obviously do that, but it didn't seem that necessary. I let my beans sit in the sugar for about 2 hours and the taste is plenty vanilla.

Note: For all the peach recipes, you will need to peel the peaches. To do this easily, boil water in a medium saucepan. Drop in a peach for about 30 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl of ice water. The hot water loosens the skin from the fruit, the ice helps it separate even more and keeps you from burning your hands. The skins should easily slide off.


(For a refresher on canning jam, see previous post on Strawberry Jam or check out this site from the USDA.)

Recipe yields about 3 pints or 6 half-pints.

Eat Rating: Awesome. I had intended to give away some of my jam, but now I just want to keep it for myself.
Difficulty: Medium. Canning equipment needed.

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, August 1997

2 1/2 lbs peaches, skinned, pitted and sliced
5 1/2 cups sugar
2 vanilla beans
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 box pectin (1.75 oz -- about 3/8 cup)
1 tbsp bourbon

Measure sugar into a large bowl. Cut open the vanilla beans (for an example, see here) and let sit in the sugar for 48 hours. (LN: I let mine sit covered for 2 hours.)

When you are ready to begin cooking, take the largest pot you own, fill halfway with water and set on a back burner over medium heat. You will use this later. Place your jars on a cookie sheet and slide into a cold oven. Turn up the heat to 250 degrees. Once it reaches temperature, turn off the oven but leave the jars inside. Place the jar lids and rings in a bowl and set aside.

In a large saucepan, combine the sliced peaches, lemon juice and pectin. Heat, stirring constantly, until the peaches begin to boil, about 5 minutes. Add the sugar and vanilla beans. Return to a rolling boil, then cook about 1 additional minute. Remove from heat, stir in bourbon. Fish out the vanilla beans. (You can save these to use again, but you might want to rinse to get the peach stickiness off).

Use a ladle to pour some of the hot water from the large pot into the bowl with the lids and rings. This will sterilize them.

Remove a few jars from the oven with a clean dish towel. Ladle the hot jam into the jars, wipe clean the lip of the jars and affix a lid. Twist on a ring till finger tight, then place the filled jar in the large pot of hot water.

Repeat until you run out of jam. You want the jars in the large pot to be completely submerged in water. Add more water if necessary. Return water to a boil, then boil the jars for five minutes. Remove jars from pot. The tops should pop as the jars return to room temperature. If any of the jars have not popped within 24 hours, reboil.

The jam will keep unopened for up to a year. Once opened, finish the jam within 2-3 weeks.

On toast

Strawberry Balsamic Jam (Part 3)

Strawberries and balsamic vinegar. It seemed like a strange combination. My mother even gave me a skeptical look, one of those "don't blame me, Leah, when it's horrible" looks, when I suggested it. But I was right. It is pretty good. The Strawberry-Balsamic Jam comes in right in between the two other varieties. The strawberry is good, but pretty plain, like the girl-next-door who you like but don't really want to marry. The port wine is so rich and sweet that you can't eat very much. The Strawberry-Balsamic is a nice middle ground, sweet but not overly so and exotic enough of a taste so it's not boring.

Eat Rating: Awesome
Difficulty: Medium-hard. No pectin in this, so you're in for the long haul.
Comparison: I think, just maybe, this is my favorite. Don't tell the others.

From "Nine Bean-Rows"

4 cups strawberries, washed and crushed
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 lemon, juiced
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 1-pint jars

In a large saucepan, combine all the ingredients. (To cut down on cooking time, you can let the berries mascerate in the sugar for 20 minutes or so). Heat over medium until boiling, then cook for about 30 minutes until the jam begins to sheet. Fill jars as previously directed.

Strawberry Port Wine Jam (Part 2)

Awhile back (and by awhile I mean, last month) I made a pretty awesome strawberry tart with port wine glaze. I say I made a tart, but the only thing anyone actually ate were the strawberries, leaving a whole sad mess of marscapone cheese. This set off a little light-bulb in my head. What if I made strawberry jam with port wine? Apparently, I'm not the most original person in the world, because I did find a recipe from the June 2003 issue of Southern Living on Strawberry-Port Jam. I even had enough port leftover from the tart that I didn't need to buy a new bottle.

The port does two things -- it makes the jam a really dark ruby red color, and it makes it hella rich. Like I don't think you could actually eat more than 1 tablespoon (if you're on a diet, that could be helpful, right?). But you'll definitely like that one tablespoon.

Strawberry-Port Wine Jam

Eat Rating: Delicious.
Difficulty: Medium-hard. Same deals as before, though the recipe cooks much faster because of the pectin.
Comparison: The jam is richer than the straight strawberry. Port is definitely the primary flavor, so consider which you like better: strawberries or wine?

Adapted from Southern Living, June 2003

20 oz (about 2 1/2 cups) strawberries, washed and crushed
1 1/2 cups ruby port
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 package (1.75 oz) powdered pectin
4 cups of sugar
5 1-pint jars

In a large saucepan, crush the strawberries with a potato masher, then mix in the port, zest, nutmeg and pectin.

Heat the mixture to a full, rapid boil and cook for about 1 minute. Add sugar, stirring constantly until incorporated. Return mixture to a full boil and boil for 1 additional minute. Remove from heat, skim off the foam and fill jars as directed.

It's a Recession: Homemade Strawberry Jam, Part 1

Like pretty maids all in a row.

Apologies for the lack of posts. There was not much cooking in Kitchen Stadium last week. To make up for it, though, I bring you a three-parter.

I know it's a little old-school, but I like to make my own jam. Usually my mom and I take a weekend and make a ton of jam -- generally either strawberry or peach. We can it, and then it lasts the whole year. Except last year, we never got around to making any and for the first time in probably my life I actually had to buy jam at the store. I felt like a failure. As soon as the strawberries showed up at the market this year, I made an appointment with the mother to make some jam. We had these grandiose plans to go to the farm and pick the berries ourselves -- in spite of my severe allergy to bees mind you -- but then we could never find a decently priced place. So my mom bought a bunch of berries at Costco. She went a little overboard and bought 20 pounds, which is how I ended up making three different flavors of strawberry jam (You've got to keep it interesting if you're going to stand over a hot pot all day, you know?).

A couple notes on homemade jam before I give you the first recipe.

1) To can or not to can? When you make homemade jam, you could either make it and refrigerate or you could can it. Canning is more intense, but it keeps for up to a year. If you just refrigerate, the jam will only last about 2-3 weeks. For my part, I always can. But if you don't want to go out and get jars, you can skip that part. I'll put some instructions here on this first recipe about how to can for those who are interested. If you do want to can, you need glass jars. They sell these at Target, Walmart and places like Michael's Crafts. Each jar has three parts: the glass container, the metal lid and the metal band. If you are reusing old jars, you can use the glass part and the band, but make sure to buy new lids. You can either use pint size or half-pint size depending on your preference.

2) Pectin or no pectin. This is actually the first year I have ever cooked with pectin and it was at CCO's behest. Pectin is a natural enzyme found in fruits like apples and lemons. When added to jams and jellies, it acts as a natural thickening agent to help the fruit gell. Back in the day when you made jam, you would cook it until the fruit broke down and counteracted with the sugar to form a gell. Now you can just use pectin and it will thicken much more quickly. You can find at the store in packets of dried powder or as a gel (called Certo), usually on the same aisle as gelatin. There's also some strange way you can make your own pectin at home if you're really crunchy, but I decided that was way beyond me. There are two advantages to pectin. First, because the pectin is causing the thickening, you don't have to cook the fruit as long. When I was a kid, it seemed like we would stand over the stove for hours (it's really more like 20-30 minutes). With pectin, it's faster, more like 10. The second advantage is that pectin is a soluable dietary fiber. This was CCO's appeal. For whatever chemical reason, your stomach doesn't break down the pectin and it goes through your system pretty much in tact. Somewhat gross to visualize, but this helps reduce the amount of cholesterol in your blood. So even though he was essentially asking me to relearn how to cook jam, I decided to be a sport and make some with pectin. The first recipe, plain strawberry jam, is made without pectin. The second, strawberry with port wine, has powdered pectin, and the third, strawberry-balsamic, is no pectin.

Eat Rating: Awesome. Seriously, you may reconsider buying your jam at the store...
Difficulty: Medium to hard. You need several pots and canning jars. It also helps if you have one of these jar lifters.

Strawberry Jam

From the Ball Blue Book of Preserving

2 quarts of strawberries
6 cups of sugar
5 1-pint canning jars

Place the strawberries in a colander and wash thoroughly, making sure to remove any strawberries with visible dirt or mold. With a knife, remove the tops of the berries and coursely chop. Once you have chopped all the berries, you should have 8 cups.

Add the berries to a large saucepan and crush with a potato masher. Add the sugar, stir until thoroughly coated and then set aside for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove the lids from the canning jars and thoroughly wash each jar, either by hand using soap and hot water or by running through the dish washer.

Take a big pot, the largest one you've got and fill about halfway with water. This is your jar pot. After the jars are washed, place each jar in the water. Heat up the water to boiling to further sterilize the jars, then reduce heat to low. In a separate smaller saucepan, heat water and place all the jar rims inside. It doesn't need to be boiling, just hot.

At this point, take your berry/sugar mixture and heat it over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil. The sugar should be dissolved and you'll start to get a foam on top. That's ok, just be careful that the foam doesn't overflow the pan or you'll get to experience what burning sugar smells like. Stir frequently as the mixture cooks until it reaches the gelling, or sheeting point. This will take awhile, as much as 40 minutes. To test whether it's ready, take a metal spoon and lift it above the pan about a foot. Allow to cool for a second, then turn the spoon so the jelly falls back into the pan. If the mixture falls off in drops, it needs more time. But if the jelly falls off the spoon more like a mass, as though the drops have coalesced together, it's finished. (Here's a good example of what sheeting looks like).

Remove from heat. At this point you want to remove the foam from the jam. With a small spoon, skim any foam off the top of the jam. You can either discard the skim or keep it to eat later. Once the foam is removed, you'll want to fill the jars.

Carefully remove one jar from the jar pot. Fill the jar with jam, leaving about 1/4 of an inch at the top. Using a paper towel or cloth, clean the rim of the jar. You want to make sure there is no jam on the jar's rim or the lid may not seal properly. Using tongs, briefly place the lid in the hot water to heat up, then place on top of the jar. Remove a ring from the ring bath, and use a towel to twist the lid until it is completely secured. Place the filled jar back in the water bath. Fill all the remaining jars until you run out of jam.

Return the jar pot to the heat and boil for about 5-10 minutes. Carefully remove the hot jars from the pot, and set aside. The reason you reboil the jam is to pressurize the jars. As they cool to room temperature, you should hear a small metallic popping sound as the lid of each jar pops inward. That's how you know the canning was successful and will keep for a long period. After about 30 minutes, inspect the jars to insure they have all popped inward. If any did not pop, check the band to make sure it is twisted on firmly, then reboil.

Sealed jars of jam will keep for at least a year. Once you open a jar, use within 3 weeks.