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Feb 13 2012
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Jam Making

Experiment 10: Grapefruit Jam with Lavender and Honey

Mike and I both love grapefruit! For me, it’s a recent passion. When I was little, it always felt too bitter to me. However, a few weeks ago, I tasted a really sweet ruby red grapefruit,with just the right amount of bitterness to it. I’ve been hooked ever since.

I thought it would be interesting to experiment with the flavors of grapefruit, because it is such a strong and distinct flavor. After trying several combinations, I have arrived at one that I really like. Lavender works well with grapefruit. It is a fairly unusual flavor, because until recently it was never considered an ingredient for cooking. It goes very well with the taste of the grapefruit.

I cut four grapefruit, so that I only had the flesh of the fruit. The membrane, the pith and the pits, I set aside, for their pectin. I cooked down the grapefruit in two cups of water for about half an hour. I added two tablespoons of lavender to this.

I experimented with honey as a sweetener instead of sugar. I added a cup of honey to the jam about half an hour into the cooking process. It worked fairly well in this recipe, however, the jam didn’t achieve the thick, gel like consistency that I usually get with sugar. I don’t mind a watery jam, however, if you feel strongly about the texture of your jam, you can replace the honey with sugar.

After cooking the fruit down on medium heat for an hour and a half, I added two tablespoons of vanilla essence and another teaspoon of lavender. I continued cooking for another half hour before bottling.

This was a fairly small experiment. It yielded five four ounce jars.

All of the flavors come together beautifully. There is still some bitterness, but if you like the taste of grapefruit, you will enjoy this jam. It is fragrant and unusual and delicious.

Ingredients:

4 large ruby grapefruit

3 tablespoons of lavender

1 cup of honey

2 tablespoons of pure vanilla essence

Grapefruit Jam, with Lavender and Honey on Punk Domestics
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Jan 14 2012
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Jam Making

Experiment 9: Kumquat-Cranberry Jam

Kumquats are an interesting fruit. They are part of the citrus family, but unlike oranges and lemons, they carry their sugar in the rinds. So the inside of the kumquat is a bit tart, while the outside is sweet. They look like tiny oranges.

I wanted to put the kumquats in a nice, wintry jam, so I chose cranberry as the alternative flavor. Citrus and cranberry goes together very well, and as an additional kick, I used cinnamon.

The first step was slicing the kumquats crosswise into very thin slivers. Remove the seeds and place them in a cloth spice bag. They are a valuable source of pectin that will help the jam to gel.

I cooked the three pounds of sliced kumquats and four pounds of cranberries together with three cups of water in a pot. I included four whole sticks of cinnamon and the spice bag filled with the kumquat seeds.

I cooked the cranberries down for about an hour. Then I added four cups of sugar into the mixture. After cooking it down for another 45 minutes, the jam thickened, producing a beautiful red consistency. This jam isn’t too sweet. While the taste of the cranberries is strong, the kumquat does come through nicely. The cinnamon is a nice undertone.

Ingredients:

  • 3 pounds kumquat
  • 4 pounds cranberry
  • 4 cinnamon sticks
  • 4 cups water
  • 4 cups sugar
  • a spice bag filled with kumquat seeds, for pectin
Cranberry Kumquat Jam on Punk Domestics
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Jan 08 2012
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Jam Making

Experiment 8: Orange Marmalade

Not to be deterred by my first experience with marmalade, I decided to try a simpler recipe and work  up from there. Here, we boiled thinly sliced pieces of orange in six cups of water for an hour. We included the zest and the juice of one lemon into the mix.

After an hour of boiling it down, when the pulp and the pith of the oranges had separated from the rind, I put in three cups of sugar. I kept cooking at medium for another hour.

The end result was a thick, deep orange marmalade. We kept it simple – we didn’t add any other ingredients to the mixture. It tastes like a lovely, classic, British marmalade.

I am much happier with this marmalade than I was with the previous one. However, it is a simple marmalade. Next, we would like to try a more complex marmalade, which has a jelly like texture with bits of rind floating in it. This marmalade has a large quantity or pulp and pith in it. While it has a delicious, simple flavor, it’s texture is not as sophisticated as some versions of marmalade.

Also, since orange has a very large quantity of pectin in its pith and rind, we did not have to use any commercial pectin. This made for a much smoother consistency than the previous lemon marmalade.

Ingredients:

  • Six medium sized navel oranges
  • Zest and juice of one lemon
  • 6 cups of water
  • 3 cups of sugar

Jan 05 2012
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Jam Making

Experiment 7: Lemon Marmalade

After a brief break from jam-making to indulge in holiday festivities, I have decided to start the year with a challenge: marmalade! The process of making marmalade is complex and takes several days to perform correctly. Jam makers suggest a range of techniques. I have examined several cookbooks and come up with a composite method that is both thorough and also time-efficient.

Day One

The evening before cooking, I cut the lemons into small, bite sized portions. During the cutting process, I removed all the pits. I then put the lemon pieces in a stainless steel bowl, filled the bowl with water and covered the bowl, leaving the cut lemons to soak overnight.

Day 2

I let the lemon pieces soak through the night. I then put all the lemons in a large stainless steel pot together with the water they were soaking in. I cooked the lemons at medium heat for a long time, about an hour and a half. It is vital to stir constantly, even at medium heat. A couple of times, the bottom bits of lemon began to burn.

I then strained the cooked lemons, producing a thick liquid. In the strainer, I took some of the lemon rinds and sliced them up into thin, edible strips. I put the cooked lemon liquid and the lemon rinds into a different pot and added three cups of sugar to the mixture.

I used a teaspoon of commercial pectin to help the mixture to gel. After cooking down the sugar mixture for about half an hour, the result was this luminous amber colored lemon marmalade.

The texture of the marmalade was nice. A gel like consistency with bits of rind floating in it. However, I am not completely satisfied with my first marmalade. Of all the experiments I have done, this one could do with significant improvement.

  • The taste of the marmalade is a bit too bitter. I think this is because there was a little bit of burning in the first cooking stage.
  • I don’t want to use commercial pectin in a citrus marmalade recipe. It gives the marmalade a chunky quality and chalky flavor. Lemons have a large amount of pectin in the seeds and in the pulp. In the next experiment, I will try to extract the pectin from the pits.

On the whole, I was glad to try my hand at making this marmalade. But there is a lot of room for improvement! On to more experiments!

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Dec 24 2011
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Jam Making

Experiment 6: Cranberry-Orange Jam (with Cinnamon)

It’s Christmas Eve! After a relaxed morning here in Cambridge, I got in the mood to make some jam. After trying a range of non-traditional jam fruits, I decided to go back to the basics by trying a berry. Since cranberries are the only berries I could find this time of year, I decided to create a cranberry jam with a very different flavor profile from the one I created in Experiment 2 (the Cranberry Pomegranate Port Jam). I decided to go with oranges and cinnamon. A jam that tastes entirely of Christmas!

I began by grating the rind of seven large California oranges.

I then put three pounds of cranberries in a pot and covered the berries with water. When the berries started cooking down, I added the rind. I peeled the seven oranges, blended them and strained the juice. I poured the juice into the cooking cranberries.

I added two whole cinnamon sticks to the mixture. I put four cups of sugar and two tablespoons of pectin into a bowl and made sure they were well integrated. I then poured the sugar into the pot and mixed continually for about 20 minutes at high heat.

This is a lovely winter jam. It has a Christmasy red color. The texture is a very traditionally thick but spreadable jam texture. The cinnamon adds just a bit of complexity to the jam.

I’m about to put labels on these to give as gifts to friends. Merry Christmas everyone!

Ingredients:

  • 7 large california oranges, rind grated
  • 3 pounds of cranberries
  • 2 sticks of cinnamon
  • 4 cups of sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of powdered pectin
Yields eight half pint jars.

Cranberry Orange Jam (with Cinnamon) on Punk Domestics
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Dec 19 2011
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Jam Making

Experiment 5: Pear Jam (with Vanilla Bean and Elderflower Liquor)

Pears are probably my favorite fall fruit. I love ripe pears that are soft and juicy. We found a wonderful recipe in the Blue Chair Jam Cookbook. Rachel Saunders suggests introducing vanilla and elderflower liquor into the mixture. Mike and I really loved the sound of that. Both of us grew up in the tropics (Hawaii and Southeast Asia respective) and we both love elderflower because it reminds us of lychee, a fruit that we both loved as children.

We made a few small tweaks to the recipe. Instead of Bartlett pears, as Saunders suggests, we used Bosc. We also used a little less lemon juice than she suggests, because we found the acidity was overwhelming the other flavors. We also didn’t use any sugar at all. Apart from that, we kept pretty close to the recipe, which is out of character for us.

Saunders recommends using very ripe, soft pears. Unfortunately all the pears we had were not particularly soft yet, so we put them in the oven at low heat for an hour to soften them up.

We then peeled, cored and cut the pears. We put the pears in the pot and added a small amount of water.

We used two vanilla beans. Mike sliced the pod and removed the seeds. Then placed both the seeds and the pod into the pot.

We added a rather large quantity of the elderflower liquor (3/4 cup), in small amounts over the course of about an hour. Then we turned down the heat and let the pears simmer for another two hours, stirring occasionally. Note that we didn’t use any sugar. The pears and the liquor seemed to provide enough sweetness for us.

Cooking the jam slowly for over less heat seems to be the most effective approach. The flavor of the various ingredients and the fruit itself seems to get stronger with more time.

This jam is my favorite one yet! I say that every time, but this one is particularly wonderful. It is rich and really holds the flavor of the pear. Delicious!

Ingredients

  • 11 cored, peeled Bosc pears
  • Two vanilla pods (separate the seeds from the pod and put both in the pot)
  • 3/4 cup of elderflower liquor (we used St.Germain).
  • freshly squeezed lemon juice from 2 lemons
Dec 10 2011
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Jam Making

Experiment 4: Banana Jam (with Spiced Rum and Vanilla)

I’m on a roll! I’ve been feeling very inspired to make jam lately. Today I woke up with a craving for some banana pancakes – and I thought, why not try making a banana jam? Banana jam is not very common, but it is a local favorite in Jamaica. Since I was already in a Caribbean frame of mind, I thought that I would add some rum to my jam. I thought  I would start with these two ingredients.

I began by cutting nine medium sized bananas into slim pieces. I immediately placed them in a bowl with the juice from a lemon to prevent them from oxidizing. Some people suggest using very soft, ripe bananas for jam because the flavors are a bit richer. I decided against that, in favor of using bananas that were a bit firmer because I wanted to get chunks of banana in the jam. I also wanted the banana jam to be pale, less brown and less oxidized.

Then, I put the bananas into a pot and put about one cup of white sugar and two cups of brown sugar in the pot. I added a teaspoon of pectin.

It doesn’t take long for the bananas to cook down. It is important to keep stirring so that the delicate banana and sugar mixture doesn’t burn. At this point, I put three tablespoons of pure vanilla extract in. I also added a pinch of cinnamon for a slightly more complex flavor profile.

Then came the rum! I poured about a cupful of Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum into the pot in parts. I stirred the mixture so that the rum was well integrated before pouring in the next bit of rum.

When the jam had achieved a thick but fluid consistency, I began to bottle the jam. This recipe yielded five half pint jars of jam. It has a very interesting flavor. It is not too sweet and you can definitely taste bits of the rum and the vanilla in every biteful. I also wanted the jam to be a little chunky, so that you can actually taste pieces of whole fruit.

I’m getting ready to mail off jam to friends and family as Christmas presents. Stay tuned as I explain some techniques for decking out your jam bottles and making sure your jam arrives safely.

Ingredients:

  • Nine medium sized bananas
  • 1 teaspoon of pectin
  • 2 cups of brown sugar
  • 1 cup of white sugar
  • 3 tablespoons of pure vanilla extract
  • pinch of ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup of Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum
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Dec 08 2011
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Jam Making

Experiment 3: Spicy Apple Jam (with Ginger, Cinnamon and Chili Flakes)

Today, I decided to make another seasonal jam. Apples are abundant this time of year and they are one of my favorite fruit. That said, apples are not easy to make jam with because they do not cook down to the gel like consistency of other fruit. However, with some experimentation, I was able to get jam-like texture that I was happy with.

I began with nine small braeburn apples. They are among my favorite apples and they are plentiful in Cambridge this time of year. Almost any apple would work well, though, with this particular recipe. I peeled and cored the apples, then cut them into small pieces.

I juiced two lemons and put the juice in a large stainless steel pot with a few inches of water in it. I placed the apple pieces directly into the pot so that they wouldn’t oxidize.

I wanted the jam to taste spicy and gingery, but I didn’t want the fibers of the ginger to be part of the jam, so I used a ginger grater tool to collect the juice from the ginger. (We got our ginger grater from Crate and Barrel. It’s a very handy little thing to have around and allows you to use ginger in all kinds of interesting ways.) I grated one large ginger piece to yield about six ounces of ginger juice.

I poured about four cups of sugar into the pot and let the apples cook down in the lemon juice and water mixture. After a few minutes, I poured the ginger juice into the pot. As it bubbled, I put in a generous amount of ground cinnamon (about 5-6 tablepoonfuls) and a small pinch of coriander.

When the apples started cooking down, I put in about a teaspoon of chili flakes in to give the jam a bit of a kick. At this point, the texture of the jam was still a bit watery – it looked too much like apple sauce. I added a pinch of pectin towards the end, and it gave the jam a more gel like consistency.

This is my favorite jam so far. It is sweet, spicy and the taste of the apples really comes through. It will make a fantastic holiday gift. It can be used in a range of holiday dishes, as a condiment.

Ingredients:

  • 9 small apples (I used Braeburn)
  • juice from freshly grated ginger
  • 5 tablespoons of ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon of chili flakes
  • a pinch of pectin

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Dec 06 2011
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Jam Making

Experiment 2: Cranberry Pomegranate Marmalade (with Cinnamon, Port and Ginger)

December is here and Christmas is just around the corner! I’ve decided to make a delightfully seasonal marmalade, inspired by a recipe I found in the Blue Chair Jam Cookbook, but with a twist.

It calls for 6 cups of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. I had never juiced a pomegranate before and this was a really fun, messy experience. There are several methods by which you can do this. The one I chose was to cut the pomegranates in half and then ream them the way that you would a lemon. Keep in mind that juice will splatter everywhere! And pomegranate juice is dark red and will stain your hands, your clothes and your cutting board. However, getting the juice out of the pomegranate is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world! It is akin to squeezing bubble wrap. 

This was a very effective and quick method. Don’t worry if pomegranate seeds fall into the bowl. I found an interesting solution to this problem. Using a slotted spoon, I removed all the pomegranate seeds from the juice, placed them in a zip-lock bag and then squeezed the bag. I managed to get several more spoonfuls of juice this way. I used a total of five pomegranates and yielded a bit over six cups of juice.

I then continued reaming lemons. I got about 8 ounces of juice from two lemons.

In a large bowl, I combined the pomegranate juice with the lemon, three cups of sugar and a tablespoonful of pectin. I mixed the ingredients together until they were well integrated.

I then transferred the mixture into a large stainless steel pot together and then added the cranberries. I added enough water to cover the cranberries. Then I turned on the stove to high heat until everything came to a boil. 

After about 20 minutes, the pot began boiling and a layer of foam gathered at the top. I removed the foam with a slotted spoon.

At this point, I tasted the marmalade and it seemed too tart and acidic to me. It needed a little something else. I immediately got in touch with Mike, who was in the library knee-deep in math, preparing for finals. He suggested some cinnamon, some lemon rind and an alcohol of some sort. I had Port on hand at home, that a friend had recently brought over from Portugal (thanks Luciana!). So I introduced a few tablespoons of ground cinnamon, some lemon rind and Port into the mixture. I also added three tablespoons of freshly minced ginger.

I tasted the marmalade and it was delicious! I turned the heat down to low and let the mixture cook down for another half hour. When the texture of the marmalade was thick but still liquidy, I bottled it. It yielded 5 half pint bottles.

The flavor of this marmalade is rich, with a little bit of spice and tartness. So delicious! I can’t wait to start eating this, as Christmas approaches.

Ingredients:

  • 6 cups of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice
  • 8 ounces of freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 pounds of cranberries
  • a bit of pectin
  • 3-5 pounds of sugar (it depends on how sweet you like your marmalade/jam – I used about 3 pounds)
  • 4 ounces of Port
  • 4 tablespoons of ground cinnamon
  • freshly grated ginger to taste
  • lemon zest to taste
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Nov 29 2011
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Jam Making

A note on jam jars…

It is important to have the right kind of jars in the jam-making process. Mike and I are big fans of the Ball brand. They are hardy and easy to freeze. We have been using half pint jars. They are just large enough for you to get two-three weeks worth of jam for breakfast and they make beautiful little gifts.

After doing a great deal of research, we’ve found that the best prices on half pint jam jars are to be found in the following places:

  • Whole Foods. You can get a 12 pack of little jars at Whole Foods for $10.99. While Whole Foods tends to be more expensive than other grocery stores for almost everything, the mason jar section is surprisingly competitively priced.
  • Overstock.com. This is the best online source. If you use their www.o.co link, you can get free shipping. You can get 24 jars for $28.99.

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