Last night I made jam. I made jam about 20+ years ago and I remember it as a hot sticky messy chore. Guess it's all in the mind set. Last night I WANTED to make jam ... and it was GREAT !! I made 4 batches ... filled 3 cases of bottles. If I had had another few boxes of berries and another case of jars I would have made more !! It smelled so good, the colour was amazing, it tasted delicious ... I wanted to just keep going. Now I have a whole list of jams & jellies I want to make. ( Could I have an obsessive personality ??? hmmm ...)
I learned a few things. Don't lick your finger if you get pectin on it - SOUR !! And I can fill you in on the Bernardin vs. Certo debate. I made 2 batches of each. Much prefer the Certo. Bernardin involves putting the completed jam in the canner for a 10 minute boil after it is in the jars. That was no problem but the jam lost some of its real ruby colour . And because the pectin is added at a different stage in the boiling process and stirred for much less time, the fruit tends to float up more and the foam is much harder to skim off. The Certo gelled much faster and the fruit stayed well suspended. That is your Consumer/Home Economics lesson for today ... was that a yawn I heard ...
Anyway, it was great !! I turned off the stove a little after midnight and looked at all my sparkling jars with the greatest of pleasure. And then listened to that little symphony of "Pop", "pop", "pop". Ah ... happy sounds at the jam factory !
... a few of my favourite things ...
2 comments:
Ooooo! I am so glad someone else out there loves the part at the end where you admire the glittering bottles and listen to the pops! I find it very satisfying!
At my house they don't pop so much as they make a 'snick' sound. It is indeed glorious when you are lying in bed exhausted by the days events and hear the rewarding 'sssnick' as you ask yourself if it was worth staying up that extra hour to make jam. And yeas; Certo is better than Bernardin.
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