Made kiwifruit jam with a hint of mint. It turned out beautifully! I had reservations about making a tropical fruit preserve, but the tangy sweetness of this chunky preserve is delicious! I also made a batch of buttermilk biscuits to complement although its wonderful on buttered toast...
Since I've been making so much jam, I though I'd try something a little different and make Mango Jam. I just received a new cookbook on canning and used a recipe from it. This is the first time I've used pectin, and I have to say I wasn't so impressed. I was reluctant to add anything besides fruit, sugar and lemon juice, but every recipe in this book uses pectin and the author swears by it.
The jam looks great, but I don't think it cooked long enough, so its a bit chunky and thin. It tastes great. I had to modify the recipe entirely by cutting the sugar in half, adding more fruit and tripling the lemon and lime juices.
It too made its way onto buttermilk biscuits, which made Nadia very happy!
I am definitely on a jamming streak. I love the process of canning fruit and making jam! Today was Santa Rosa plums purchased from Monterey Market instead of picked like the apricots. The plums themselves were delicious, and their flavor didn't change terribly once made into jam. I used the recipe from the apricot preserves and just swapped the fruit.
The plums shed their skin in the boiling water much quicker than the apricots did. Once skinned and pitted, the plums were tossed in a pot to boil with the sugar and lemon juice. A mass of plum pulp, not so appetizing at this stage.
So peach preserves this time. Strawberry jam had a 50% success rate, but we decided to try it again, this time with peaches! The key is letting the fruit mixture cook to the "jell point," which was not mentioned in our Strawberry jam recipe, hence 3 jars good jam and 3 jars strawberry syrup!
