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Yes We Can(ned)!
Apologies for the bad pun.
On Sunday, I went to a fascinating intro-to-home-canning class held by Food In Jars blogger Marisa McClellan, who flew to Seattle from her home in Philadelphia to teach a dozen canning newbies the ropes. McClellan's parents drove up from Portland to film and pitch in
We made plum jam. That part was easy.
First, place a rack or a dish towel in the bottom of your biggest pot. Then, put as many jars as you're going to fill (pint, quart, whatever you want), along with their rings (set the lids aside) on top of the rack and fill the pot with water. (You can put the water in first, but be careful to leave enough room for the water the jars are going to displace). Bring the pot of water to a boil and keep it boiling while you make the jam. This will sterilize the jars.
Then, put the lids (the round discs with the sticky sealing compound on the outside) in a small pot of water and bring to a very gentle simmer (not a boil!) This softens the sealing compound.
Meanwhile, chop up the plums. McClellan recommends cutting around the perimeter, then popping out the pits by hand or with a pit-size melon baller. Her recipe calls for eight cups, but we ended up with about 32:
Once you've chopped up your fruit into chunks about half an inch across (thinner-skinned fruits like plums, nectarines, and apricots don't need to be peeled; thicker-skinned or more heavily textured fruits like apples and peaches do), chuck it all into a big pot and put it over high heat. Or, in the case of Sunday's class (held at the Starry Nights Catering kitchen in Kirkland), a really big pot:
Heat it for a while until the plums start to break down. (This takes less time in a pot as big as the ones we were using—which were, seriously, about a foot and a half across—and more in a pot with a smaller circumference.) Stir frequently to make sure the fruit doesn't scorch, which will ruin the flavor of the whole batch. Once it starts breaking down a little, pour in your suger, the plain white stuff...
about half as much sugar as fruit. The sugar is necessary because it serves as a preservative; any less than about one to one and your jam won't last as long. (Honey and fruit juice don't solidify the jam the same way sugar does, and McClellan doesn't recommend them).
Bring the mixture back to a boil and cook until the sugar is all dissolved and the mixture is starting to thicken. Meanwhile, zest your lemons ("If you're not using a MicroPlane, you're making a huge mistake," McClellan says), one per eight cups of fruit. Once it's getting a little thicker, add liquid pectin (McClellan doesn't like powdered pectin, because it produces a thick jam "like the stuff you buy at the grocery store," but suggests using half as much if that's all you've got), about one packet for every eight cups. (We only had two packets, so our jam was a little thinner than the ideal). Add about half a teaspoon of nutmeg (again, grated with the Microplane), the lemon zest and juice from the lemons, and two teaspoons of cinnamon per eight cups of fruit and stir until everything is dissolved.
This is the point where you'll want to start tasting. If you think it needs more tartness, add a little more lemon juice or citric acid; if it needs more complexity, add some booze (Cointreau, Gran Marnier, red wine), vanilla, or more spice. Just use your judgment.
The jam will go through several stages.
Foamy:
Thickening:
And finally: Jam!
Once the jam is good and jammy, take your sterilized jars and rings out of the pot (a canning jar lifter is good for this, or use rubber-coated tongs) and set them on the counter; bring the water back to a boil while you do the next steps. Using a measuring cup and a funnel (a canning funnel is cheap and useful), pour the jam into the jars, leaving about half an inch of head space between the jam and the top of the jar. Dip a paper towel into the boiling water and use the towel to clean off the rims of the jars. Remove the lids from the simmering water and press them firmly onto the jars; secure tightly with metal rings and put the jars back into the boiling water to process. Make sure the jars are completely submerged; this enables the creation of the vacuum that sucks the air out of the jars and makes them self-stable. Let them boil for about ten minutes, then remove from the pot in the order you put them in, and turn off the heat.
Voila!
The jars will start to pop after a few minutes, making little metallic "pings." If some of your jars don't pop, don't fret; just store them in the fridge and eat those (which will still keep about a year refrigerated) first.
For more recipes, including pickles, salsas, and preserves, check out McClellan's gorgeous and informarive web site .
On Sunday, I went to a fascinating intro-to-home-canning class held by Food In Jars blogger Marisa McClellan, who flew to Seattle from her home in Philadelphia to teach a dozen canning newbies the ropes. McClellan's parents drove up from Portland to film and pitch in
We made plum jam. That part was easy.
First, place a rack or a dish towel in the bottom of your biggest pot. Then, put as many jars as you're going to fill (pint, quart, whatever you want), along with their rings (set the lids aside) on top of the rack and fill the pot with water. (You can put the water in first, but be careful to leave enough room for the water the jars are going to displace). Bring the pot of water to a boil and keep it boiling while you make the jam. This will sterilize the jars.
Then, put the lids (the round discs with the sticky sealing compound on the outside) in a small pot of water and bring to a very gentle simmer (not a boil!) This softens the sealing compound.
Meanwhile, chop up the plums. McClellan recommends cutting around the perimeter, then popping out the pits by hand or with a pit-size melon baller. Her recipe calls for eight cups, but we ended up with about 32:
Once you've chopped up your fruit into chunks about half an inch across (thinner-skinned fruits like plums, nectarines, and apricots don't need to be peeled; thicker-skinned or more heavily textured fruits like apples and peaches do), chuck it all into a big pot and put it over high heat. Or, in the case of Sunday's class (held at the Starry Nights Catering kitchen in Kirkland), a really big pot:
Heat it for a while until the plums start to break down. (This takes less time in a pot as big as the ones we were using—which were, seriously, about a foot and a half across—and more in a pot with a smaller circumference.) Stir frequently to make sure the fruit doesn't scorch, which will ruin the flavor of the whole batch. Once it starts breaking down a little, pour in your suger, the plain white stuff...
about half as much sugar as fruit. The sugar is necessary because it serves as a preservative; any less than about one to one and your jam won't last as long. (Honey and fruit juice don't solidify the jam the same way sugar does, and McClellan doesn't recommend them).
Bring the mixture back to a boil and cook until the sugar is all dissolved and the mixture is starting to thicken. Meanwhile, zest your lemons ("If you're not using a MicroPlane, you're making a huge mistake," McClellan says), one per eight cups of fruit. Once it's getting a little thicker, add liquid pectin (McClellan doesn't like powdered pectin, because it produces a thick jam "like the stuff you buy at the grocery store," but suggests using half as much if that's all you've got), about one packet for every eight cups. (We only had two packets, so our jam was a little thinner than the ideal). Add about half a teaspoon of nutmeg (again, grated with the Microplane), the lemon zest and juice from the lemons, and two teaspoons of cinnamon per eight cups of fruit and stir until everything is dissolved.
This is the point where you'll want to start tasting. If you think it needs more tartness, add a little more lemon juice or citric acid; if it needs more complexity, add some booze (Cointreau, Gran Marnier, red wine), vanilla, or more spice. Just use your judgment.
The jam will go through several stages.
Foamy:
Thickening:
And finally: Jam!
Once the jam is good and jammy, take your sterilized jars and rings out of the pot (a canning jar lifter is good for this, or use rubber-coated tongs) and set them on the counter; bring the water back to a boil while you do the next steps. Using a measuring cup and a funnel (a canning funnel is cheap and useful), pour the jam into the jars, leaving about half an inch of head space between the jam and the top of the jar. Dip a paper towel into the boiling water and use the towel to clean off the rims of the jars. Remove the lids from the simmering water and press them firmly onto the jars; secure tightly with metal rings and put the jars back into the boiling water to process. Make sure the jars are completely submerged; this enables the creation of the vacuum that sucks the air out of the jars and makes them self-stable. Let them boil for about ten minutes, then remove from the pot in the order you put them in, and turn off the heat.
Voila!
The jars will start to pop after a few minutes, making little metallic "pings." If some of your jars don't pop, don't fret; just store them in the fridge and eat those (which will still keep about a year refrigerated) first.
For more recipes, including pickles, salsas, and preserves, check out McClellan's gorgeous and informarive web site .
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