Cherry jam
It's cherry season here in the UK - suddenly they're everywhere and really cheap. So, jam.
You're going to need a cherry pitter, a couple of lemons and a whole lot of sugar. You're also going to need some cherries. You want the cherries to be a little less ripe than you'd usually eat them. If you can get sour cherries, so much the better.Think about how many cherries you can handle pitting, then buy less than that. Believe me, your ideas will change on about your third punnet. You get about a jar to a lb, so if you really want a lot of jam try to convince a friend to help.
Before you start the jam, sterilise the jars by washing them in soapy water, rinsing them well and baking them in a cool oven (130 C) for 15-20 mins. Then go and find that shirt of your husband's/boyfriend's that you've never liked, or failing that, something black. You can wash your table down afterwards, but your top is likely to get stained. You may also like to put on some encouraging music - in a few minutes time you're going to have cherry juice all over you, so do it now.
Rinse, destem and pit the cherries. Convince yourself you've always wanted a red table and enjoy the stain starting to appear on your shirt. Chop about 3/4 of the cherries so they don't fall off your toast. Zest and juice the lemons. The juice contains pectin as well as acidity and will help to set the jam. The juice will also help to bleach your now pink hands.
In a heavy stockpot over a medium heat, cook the cherries until all the fruit is soft, stirring regularly with a spatula, scraping the bottom of the pan as you do so. Measure the amount of cherry mixture you have, then add about 3/4 of that amount of sugar. E.g. if you have 2 litres of mixture (including liquid), add about 1.5 litres of sugar. Turn up the heat and stir often. Place a saucer in the freezer.
After a while the bubbles will begin to subside and the mixture will become thicker. When it's ready it will coat the spatula, gel-like. Take it off the heat and put a small amount of jam on the frozen saucer. Return it to the freezer for a few minutes. If it wrinkles when you nudge it, it's done. If not, return the mixture to the heat and boil it for another few minutes then test again in the same way.
When it's done, ladle the mixture into the sterilised jars and leave to cool at room temperature.
Labels: recipe
posted by Margie at 5:08 pm
6 Comments:
Mmmmm, sounds and looks very good.
But i also remember making jam - i think i'm going to leave that "joy" to the rest of you :)
But... YUM!
It's good to see that the family jam making tradition continues!
Woot! Consider this recipe added to my post-dissertation things-to-do list!
(So far the only other thing on the list is getting wasted for two weeks straight, so hopefully I can manage this recipe with a hangover!)
Cool photos too!
No, no, you don't leave it to cool;
in my experience you burn your wee mouth through impatient jam tasting before it's cooled, but still love it.
Home made jam served on fresh bread from the village bakery when I was a kid - worth all the scratches of picking the blackcurrants.
You'll be pleased to hear, Piratical, that there were indeed burnt tongues and fingers. I was also more than a little queasy that evening after so much taste testing. Still, I did my duty and had some for pudding! Fresh bread and jam and scones and jam have been part of our staple diet for the last couple of weeks. Yum!
Yummy. We never were good at judging when the jam was ready - we now have a candy thermometer for that purpose!
Post a Comment
<< Home