Last night turned into a jam frenzy in the Framboise houeshold. After an intial dummy run last week where I created Manchester's (finest) strawberry jam (to great fanfare & much aplomb - mostly on my part it must be said), I decided to push the sauce boat out a little further & try recipes 2 + 3 in my jam recipe book.
Plum jam (again with a dash of my magic ingredient) and then a cheekly small quantity of Mixed Berry jam (strawbs, blueberries, blackberries) were on the hob, this time simultaneously following my husband's suggestion that we might need to cooker back at some point, sans jam, to cook our supper. It was thus his suggestion to make them together which sounded like a good idea except when I then realised I need to pot 2 lots of jam simultaneously with only one jam funnel & that I needed to reweigh out 2 different quantities of warmed sugar as I had warmed it all up together.
It was an exercise in speedy & frenetic stirring co-ordination that appears, at first glance to have come off. Left had stirring large pan of Plum, right hand stirring small pan of Mixed Berry.
I haven't dared open a jar of either yet to see if the setting point was in fact reached (I was a little blase at this point) but they did both taste nice & I did the plate taste....so it might come good?!
As for quantities, my abilty to forecast yield is clearly poor. Far too much plum jam, but only a reserve quantity of Mixed Berry jam, so Plum Jam it is for presents for a while. And now I need to order more jars (much to my husband's chagrin) because I'm loathed to throw any excess away.
Anyway, for my third and final flourish next week I am planning Rhubarb and Vanilla jam which I plan to use in a fresh victoria sponge cake (with cream filling) for my sister in law (a present to say thank you for loaning me something of hers).
So this week I am sending my husband off to buy the raw ingredients so hopefully soon I can blog successfully that I have three times of jam mastered!
Here's hoping!
Tuesday 5 April 2011
Monday 4 April 2011
Monday night is jam night
Last monday was my debut at jam making. Drum roll please. It's been a long time coming as I have spent the last 10 years of my life as a slave to various well known, large FMCG corporations which has meant no real worklife balance for me & certainly no head space or energy at the end of each working day to do anthing except try & forget about all the horrors of the past 16 hours. Typically stumbling home for 8pm and then staring emptily at the TV screen then back at the wine glass (repeat until time to go to bed).
So having been made redundant 10 days before Christmas (thanks for that) and securing a new job in a small local business that actually promoted a work life balance - and perhaps more incredibly finding in reality they really meant it - I finally found enough post work energy & enthusiasm to put pan to hob!
Having studied what fruit was on deal at the local supermarkets (a cheapskate no but pessimistic about my jamming potential, yes), I went for strawberry (start low key, build from there was my unusually sensible approach). I bought a cheap pan, threw in the fruit, paniched that it wouldn't set, stirred a lot and then feel incredibly smug when it vaguely resembled strawberry jam & didn't taste foul.
Potting up (that's a jam technical term) I had visions of all the jams I was going to make in the future. Fabulous ideas about how I was going to become famous for my jams with my friends & family swam through mind as I wiped up jam from every conceivable surface you can get jam on to when you're not looking at where the jam is splattering and are more focused on trying to work out if that really is scum on your finest strawberry conserve. My first batch of strawberry jam with the magic ingredient that was (clearly) going to make the best jam anyone had ever tasted was finally made. (Rose water, in case you're interested).
About an hour later and with sticky fingers & a very kind and patient husband (I roped him in for moral support) I had 3 large pots & 2 teeny weeny pots of Manchester's finest strawberry jam.
So, a result on many fronts - not really just the jam front, but more a sign that for the first time in a long time, my job isn't ruling my life and that I really can do other things besides work instead of work all hours god sends & then spend the hours I'm not at work worrying about work. Instead I have finally discovered what I suspected all along - many other things are far more rewarding than work.
And you know what, it turns out making jam isn't that complicated (famous last words?) but it is really good fun. For those of you who are thinking about making jam but are inundanated and slightly overwhelmed by the 35 pages of advice on Google (should you have a maslin pan?...should you use liquid pectin or powdered??) I suggest doing what I did. Do loads of of reading then ignore it all & get down to your local Tesco, buy a stainless steel pan for 10 quid (who spends the best part of 40 quid on one till you're a jam convert?) find fruit on deal, lob in the pan, stir a lot & pray.
To all those about to jam, I salute you!
So having been made redundant 10 days before Christmas (thanks for that) and securing a new job in a small local business that actually promoted a work life balance - and perhaps more incredibly finding in reality they really meant it - I finally found enough post work energy & enthusiasm to put pan to hob!
Having studied what fruit was on deal at the local supermarkets (a cheapskate no but pessimistic about my jamming potential, yes), I went for strawberry (start low key, build from there was my unusually sensible approach). I bought a cheap pan, threw in the fruit, paniched that it wouldn't set, stirred a lot and then feel incredibly smug when it vaguely resembled strawberry jam & didn't taste foul.
Potting up (that's a jam technical term) I had visions of all the jams I was going to make in the future. Fabulous ideas about how I was going to become famous for my jams with my friends & family swam through mind as I wiped up jam from every conceivable surface you can get jam on to when you're not looking at where the jam is splattering and are more focused on trying to work out if that really is scum on your finest strawberry conserve. My first batch of strawberry jam with the magic ingredient that was (clearly) going to make the best jam anyone had ever tasted was finally made. (Rose water, in case you're interested).
About an hour later and with sticky fingers & a very kind and patient husband (I roped him in for moral support) I had 3 large pots & 2 teeny weeny pots of Manchester's finest strawberry jam.
So, a result on many fronts - not really just the jam front, but more a sign that for the first time in a long time, my job isn't ruling my life and that I really can do other things besides work instead of work all hours god sends & then spend the hours I'm not at work worrying about work. Instead I have finally discovered what I suspected all along - many other things are far more rewarding than work.
And you know what, it turns out making jam isn't that complicated (famous last words?) but it is really good fun. For those of you who are thinking about making jam but are inundanated and slightly overwhelmed by the 35 pages of advice on Google (should you have a maslin pan?...should you use liquid pectin or powdered??) I suggest doing what I did. Do loads of of reading then ignore it all & get down to your local Tesco, buy a stainless steel pan for 10 quid (who spends the best part of 40 quid on one till you're a jam convert?) find fruit on deal, lob in the pan, stir a lot & pray.
To all those about to jam, I salute you!
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