Jam, Part Two

In the last post, we gathered all of our supplies and got set up. Today, we're cooking and canning.

The first step is to prepare your fruit. This means peel the peaches, wash the blueberries, hull the strawberries, pit the cherries, or whatever it is you need to do. You'll also decide how you want your fruit. We're talking about making jam rather than jelly. Personally, jelly seems awfully fiddly to me. I like jam. I dump the fruit in the pot and cook it. I have found that soft strawberries will cook down to a good size on their own, blueberries need a little help from a stick blender, but peaches are a different story. In the past, I made a peach jam. The peaches were nice and soft. Once I peeled them, I was able to squish the fruit off the pit by hand. This time, the fruit seemed a bit stringy to me. Since I had blueberries as well, I whizzed it up with the stick blender. It gave me a nice smooth consistency. Personally, I'm not a big fan of giant pieces of fruit in my jam. You might be. While you're cooking your fruit, decide for yourself if that's what you want. If you feel like it's too chunky, I recommend a stick blender.

Regardless of what kind of pectin you're using, the first thing that needs to happen is bringing the fruit to a boil. For certain fruits, you may need to add lemon juice. Now would be the time to add it. There's always a certain element of chemistry to cooking and baking. It's extremely important to remember that when making jam. You need to be sure to use the exact amount that the recipe calls for, or else it just won't work. This goes for fruit, lemon juice, and sugar. Measure carefully.

you can see here that my jam has a nice smooth texture. again, personal preference.


Long before this point, you should have thought about pectin. Liquid or powdered? Regular or low sugar?
choices, choices, choices.


I haven't tried the low sugar yet. I have used both liquid and powdered pectin. I like the powdered kind better. I think it makes a better product. I think Paula Deen likes the liquid pectin better. (I think I heard her talking about it on Food Network once.) I'm not one to argue with Miz Paula, so you know. Try them both, see what you think. The difference in the two types of pectin, liquid v. powdered, is the point t which you add the sugar. With liquid pectin, you add the sugar to the fruit and bring to a boil. Then add the pectin and bring to a boil or one minute and voila! You've got jam. The powdered stuff is the opposite. You add the dry pectin to the fruit and boil, adding sugar at the end. Either way, follow the instructions on the package insert.

after I added the pectin and while I was waiting for my fruit to boil, I measured my sugar thusly:


This way, I am ready to go. I can just dump my sugar into the pot when I'm ready, thusly.
please note that I am stirring with a very long spoon.


After carefully following the instructions and adding the sugar and the pectin at the right time, you probably have jam. If you aren't sure, you can test it. Take the pot off the heat. Take the small plate out of the fridge (that I forgot to tell you to put in the fridge...oops) and put a small dab of jam on it. Give it a minute then swipe your finger across it. Does it feel like jam? You can tell. Unless you've never seen jam before. In which case you should find someone who has.


Okay, so we have jam. Hooray! The next step is to put it in jars and preserve it. It is generally not a good idea to use paraffin wax to seal a jar. It's considered and outdated method that can cause more harm than good. Here's information from NCSU on paraffin wax. In the mean time, we're going to use a traditional canning method....the boiling water method. This method is used for preserving fruits and some vegetables (tomatoes, pickles) high in acid. Preserving low- or no-acid foods, such as vegetables or meats, you use a pressure canning method. By this point, our giant black pot of water should be boiling. Here we go!

Let's first take our tray of jars and lids out of the oven. Dump the hot water out of the jars at once using the canning tongs. Remember our mantra? HOT, HOT, HOT. Be careful! Since I am short, I like to put my smoking hot pot of jam in the sink and my tray of glass jars on the counter. I make less of a mess this way. Remember, everything we have is hot, so potential mess means potential burns. Cuidado, amigos! This is also where the canning funnel comes in handy. Put the funnel into a jar and slowly ladle in the jam. I add jam until it's just at the bottom of the funnel. Once you've got the jam into the jars, put the lids on. I think I forgot to tell you that I prepare a few more jars that I think I'm going to need. I have never had a recipe yield what it says it will. I always get more. Better to have a few extra jars here than not enough.

ladle jam into jars, leaving a little room at the top.




Wipe the jars clean if you get any on the top, especially the outside, as it can prevent the jar from getting a good seal. Screw the lids on, nice and tight, but not too tight. Once all the jars are filled and lids are on, head back to the stove. Using the canning tongs, carefully lower the jars into the canning pot. Space them evenly, try not to let them touch. If they do, it's not the end of the world, I've never had any problems with big batches. The jars should be covered with about an inch of water.

trust me, there's enough water here.


You'll let this simmer for 10 minutes. If you're at a higher altitude, process longer. When time's up, pull out of the water and put on a heat and water proof surface. I place mine on a quilted placemat on the counter. As the jars cool, you'll begin to hear a "tink" sound. You'll get one "tink" for each jar. This means you've got a good seal. Once cool enough, you can press down on the lid. If it doesn't give, you've got jam! Give yourself a pat on the back!

tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink


Oh, I nearly forgot the most important part. The last step.

yummy!


There you go, yo. You made jam. It's so easy! It takes me about an hour from start to finish to make a batch of jam. I know, shut up! Seriously, I really thought it would take hours and be a complicated process and require faeries and pixie dust, possibly a dash of holy water. Nope. Take some time to hit the farmer's market to get good fruit. The farmers can tell you what's good for jam. Come home, make jam. It'll take you a couple hours all together.

Don't hesitate to ask me any questions. I'm sure I've left out something here. Let me know if you've made jam! I want to here how it went.

Jam, or You can totally do this.

A few years ago, a friend of mine made jam for the first time. I was shocked that it was so ridiculously easy to make. Shocked, I tell you. I immediately went out and bought the supplies. I have never looked back.

Blueberries are in season here. Peaches are just about there. Strawberries are almost done. It's a good time to make jam in North Carolina, folks. I was at the farmer's market a couple weeks ago and found some amazing peaches from South Carolina. I love peaches and blueberries together so I bought a little of both.

I have found that you probably have tools around the house that will work for making jam, but they might not make your life easier. I recommend getting the right tools as much for convenience as safety. You are going to be working with some hot stuff here, a lot of boiling water and boiling fruit pulp and sugar. It splatters. It hurts. Buy the right tools. Before you do, ask a friend. Know anyone who makes jam? Perhaps they can help you with your first batch. Get a feel for it and buy the right tools. It'll cost you about $30 and here's what you need.

a canning funnel.

the bottom is very wide and fits snugly into jam jars.

canning tongs

they fit the top and around the side of canning jars of all sizes.

the canning pot. it's the black one. you can see how much larger it is than my largest stock pot.

be careful! there's a lot of water in here and it needs to come to a vigorous boil.

You also need jars and lids. Use the half pint jars. The jars can be reused as long as they are not chipped, cracked or broken in any way. I don't reuse lids. Lids rust very easily and a box of new lids is just a few bucks. The final ingredient you need is pectin, but we'll get to that later.

When you get ready to make jam, the first thing you want to do is get you water going in the canning pot. You need a lot of water and it will take a while to get boiling. The next thing you want to do is prepare your jars. When making jam, remember the immortal words of Buster Poindexter. "HOT! HOT! HOT!" Everything you are working with needs to be hot. For this reason, it might be best to banish the small people from your kitchen. Perhaps a middle schooler could help once you get the hang of this, but for anyone younger, they will be in the way. Best to do this during school or nap time. So, your mantra...HOT HOT HOT. Say it with me.

HOT HOT HOT
HOT HOT HOT
HOT HOT HOT

You're putting boiling hot jam into glass that's going to go into boiling water. Your jars need to be hot. If not, they will crack when submerged into the boiling water. Trust me on this. Now, how to achieve this if your kitchen isn't as well equipped as Martha Stewart's? Here's my trick. Turn your oven on 250. Line a sheet pan/cookie sheet WITH SIDES with a kitchen towel. Line up the jars on the pan and fill to the top with boiling water. Put the lids on the pan and place in the oven until you need them. Works every time!

Observe:


Here is where I reach an impasse with the rest of The Canning World. They will tell you to "sterilize" the jars. I clean my jars then do what I just said. I pour hot water in them and keep them warm in the oven. My jars are clean. Period. The extra step to sterilize them seems extraneous to me. You are putting boiling fruit pulp and sugar into warm jars then submersing them into boiling water for 10 minutes. The boiling process is going to create a seal in the jar. If you're the germaphobe type, knock yourself out. Sterilize away. Me? I've never had a problem. Moving on.

At this point we have our supplies in place. We're ready to make jam which we will continue tomorrow. I will leave you with this bit of light reading from the USDA. Good stuff here, folks.

USDA Guide for Making Jams and Jellies

My little knitter.

Just wanted to pop in and say hi. I'm behind on a couple posts. Here's why.



To clarify, this is what he should look like.



I was supposed to be out of town this weekend. Elvis was going to stay with some friends of mine while I was gone. In return, I went to stay with them and watch their kid on Monday night. Elvis came along. He did beautifully. What a trooper that guy is! Unfortunately, at approximately 3:18 AM he woke me up. He was throwing up yarn. Traffic cone orange cotton yarn. That he had been playing with on Sunday. Can you say freak out? There was still some he was trying to barf up, but unfortunately he'd swallow it before I could catch it. I rushed him to the vet as soon as they opened. The plan was to give him fluids and laxatives and see if he could poop out the rest. No dice. So...Little Buddy had an emergency yarnectomy yesterday. The vet pulled 4 feet of yarn out of his small intestine. I picked up the 2 feet he barfed up. For those of you playing along at home, that's 6 feet of yarn.

He came home today around 2 PM. He's been going back and forth between sleeping hard and walking around the apartment. He's been locked in a cage for a few days now, you see. He's eaten a little and seems to be doing well. Somehow I think he's going to recover from this before I do.

Let the fun begin!

I feel bad that I have somewhat neglected this blog since my knee surgery. I haven't been really cooking since then. In fact, last week my big triumph was making myself a salad! I was thinking today that I'd start a new feature here on Sundays at Maison Meg In The Kitchen. I'm going to begin posting culinary terms once a week. Once school begins in August, I'll begin transitioning into what I'm learning in school. You're totally excited about this, aren't you? I can tell. Control yourself.


Vanner
A French culinary term meaning to stir a hot cream, sauce, or mixture until it is cold, with a wooden spatula or a whisk, to keep it smooth and particularly to prevent a skin forming on its surface. This process also shortens the cooling time.

Progress

I started walking yesterday. I'm totally gimpy, but I'm walking. I am completely and totally over wrestling with my anti-embolism stocking everyday. Seriously. Over it. It's like trying to put on a wet swimsuit that's a size too small. Times ten. Oy. (Yes, I realize the alternative is way worse. So I'm wearing it.)

My grandmother always complains how hard it is to cook for one.

see more Engrish

Chicken and Dumplings

Saturday afternoon I had my elderly neighbors, Mary Jane and Mr. Smith, over for lunch. I figured chicken and dumplings was a good option, especially since they are both Southern. We drank sweet tea. My mom was kind enough to reheat the food and clean up afterwards. We had a nice time chatting and laughing.

I feel like I have been in the South long enough to think that I know everything about southern food. My brother and I have a long standing debate over who makes the better chicken and dumplings. I can say with 100% certainty that mine is better. Mr Fancy Pants Culinary School adds carrots to his. I am morally opposed to carrots in chicken and dumplings. Just sayin'.

Here's my recipe.

2 lbs chicken thighs
4-5 ribs celery, large dice
1 white onion, large dice
2 cans low sodium condensed cream of chicken soup
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped fine
1 recipe dumplings

Add chicken thighs to large stock pot, cover with water, about two quarts. Boil until cooked through. Put in fridge to cool, reserving broth. Skim any excess fat.

When chicken is cool, pull off bones. Discard any excess fat and bones. Chop chicken into bite side pieces and set aside. In large stock pot over high, saute onions and celery until soft. Add chicken. Cover with broth. Add bouillon cubes and cream of chicken soup. Stir well and bring to boil. Make dumplings. Add to pot, a few at a time, once boiling. When dumplings are floating, let boil for five minutes. Turn off heat.

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Dumpling recipe:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 TBSP vegetable shortening
1/3 cup milk

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in small bowl. Mix in shortening until mixture feels like cornmeal. With a fork, mix in cold milk until mixture begins to come together. Turn out onto counter or board. Kneed until dough is smooth. Let rest 5 minutes. Roll out until dough is about 1/4" thick. Using pizza cutter, cut into strips then in the opposite direction into squares.


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Notes:

This serves about 6 people. This is easily doubled.

Try to get boneless, skinless chicken thighs if possible. It'll make your life easier.

Do not add salt to this before tasting it. The bouillon and canned soup have plenty of sodium, even the low sodium options. I find I don't need any extra.

If you want to be all fancy an' stuff, add chopped herbs (sage, thyme, marjoram) to the dumplings. It's tasty.

If you wanted to use white wheat flour in the dumplings, substitute equally for the white flour. If you want to use whole wheat flour, use 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 regular flour. The dumplings are also good if you use 3/4 cup white flour and 1/4 cup cornmeal.

This would be great vegetarian, with maybe mushrooms and squash instead of the chicken. Knorr makes a wonderful Vegetarian Vegetable bouillon. You could use low sodium cream of mushroom or celery soup instead.

Surgery update

Thursday morning I had surgery to repair damaged cartilage in my left knee. We arrived at the outpatient surgery center at 10:15. I had to do some paperwork, get reassurance from the anesthesiologist that I could have anesthesia, put on my hospital gown, shower cap and slippers and mostly just sit around. I wish they'd be a little more efficient in this process as I found the longer I waited the more anxious I got.

I was impressed that everyone I encountered was aware of my latex allergy. The staff, with the exception of the woman at the front desk, was very nice, empathetic and smart. But isn't that always the way it is? They made me leave my glasses with my mom so I literally had to be escorted by the arm to the OR. I found that walking into the OR and laying on the table while I was awake was terrifying. I had the option of being awake throughout the surgery. Aside from not wanting them to poke a needle into my spine, I can't imagine how scary it would be to be aware of what was going on. Luckily, whatever they gave me knocked me out pretty quickly. I woke up in Recovery almost as suddenly as I went out in OR. I was also in excruciating pain. When she asked my how bad it was on a scale of 1-10, I told her 12. They gave me 2 percocet, which take about 30 minutes to kick in, and a dose of something morphine-like in my IV that kicked in quick and didn't last long.

As it turns out, I did not actually tear cartilage in my meniscus. I had still somehow damaged it and had some damage in the front as well. The doctor assured my mom that I really needed to have this done. He shaved down the cartilage where it was damaged and either shaved or polished the backside of my knee cap too. I have a post-op appointment next week and will find out more then. Basically, my doctor wasn't sure he trusted the previous diagnosis and was correct in thinking that he'd find something different when he got in there.

I have been in a lot of pain, taking 2 percocet every 4 or 6 hours. I hate taking prescription pain meds. It helps a lot. I have a super sexy compression sock that I have to wear for the next three weeks or so. Oy. I also have to take an aspirin every morning for a month. I guess there's a big threat of blood clots after this kind of surgery. I also have to keep my dressing on until tomorrow and cannot shower until tomorrow either. Ugh. I just washed my hair in the kitchen sink and took a sponge bath. I am very lucky that I didn't have any nausea after I woke up. I've got some serious drug allergies, so they were worried about that.

Overall, it went well. I'm still in a lot of pain, but can tell it's less pain than a couple days ago. I'm really dopey from the percocet, kind of like the people on Intervention before the intervention. I don't know how long I'll be off my feet right now. It hurts to put weight on it and it's popping like crazy, so it may be a while. I start PT on Monday.

I'm kind of tired right now, so I think I'm done typing for a while. See ya later.

Breathing a sigh of relief, or when it's okay to take advantage of other's misfortunes.

The deadline to pay for tuition for the classes you signed up for during the preregistration period was yesterday. I paid for my fall classes shortly after I registered. I have been waiting for this payment deadline to pass so I could see if anyone didn't pay, and therefore create a space pour moi. Each morning at 5 AM registration opens. That would be five o'clock in the morning, when it's still dark and only farmers and cows are awake. I set my patented Dual Alarm System (TM) so I would get up in time. My patented Dual Alarm System (TM) consists of two alarms and sleeping on the sofa. Back in the day, when I was in college and had to get up early for an exam after staying up all night to study, I would actually sleep on the floor. That way I could get some sleep but not deep enough sleep that I would miss my alarm. It is tragically easy for me to sleep through an alarm. You remember those nights, don't you? My next to last semester at NCSU, I had something ridiculous like 18 credits, six classes because I need my head examined. I think they were all Spanish literature classes too. Because I need my head examined. In the final few weeks of that semester, I had due 12 short papers, criticisms, essays, etc., around 2 or 3 pages in length, I had 6 medium length papers around 6 or 7 pages in length, 8 presentations, the usual quizzes in each class, plus my 20 page thesis. Sadly, I am not exaggerating when I say I think I might have left out a few assignments. I was literally skipping class to get work done. Did I mention it was ALL in a foreign language too? It was so ridiculous. Had I not been so bogged down I would have had the common sense to go to my professors and tell them I am not actually Wonder Woman. I remember I finished my thesis (I got an A+, thank you) with enough time to walk across campus and take a 30 minute nap face down on a wooden bench before an exam started. I sincerely hope I never have to go through that ever again.

Wait, where was I? Right. Registration. I got up super-extra early this morning to try to register. No dice. The system hadn't updated. Nor had it each subsequent time I tried it in the following 45 minutes. I gave up and went back to sleep for an hour before my doctor's appointment. I came home and kept trying over and over and over all day long. No dice. System still wasn't updated. I finally gave up. "I have all summer to worry about this," I thought to myself. I just couldn't summon the energy to stress out at this moment.

On a lark, I logged on to Web Advisor this evening. Voila! In the section I need, two people failed to pay their tuition on time. Huzzah! I mean, it totally sucks for them and all, but I really need this class. I am probably much older than them and therefore, they have a semester or two to waste. You snooze you loose, baby! Boo-yow. I registered and immediately paid my remaining tuition. Fall semester...paid in full!

Without further ado, I present you, most loyal readers, my schedule for the Fall Term for reals this time.

Monday:
10:30 AM to 11:20 AM Beginning Golf
12:00 PM to 1:50 PM Purchasing
2:00 PM to 3:50 PM Purchasing Lab

Tuesday:
8:00 AM to 8:50 AM Baking I
9:00 AM to 9:50 AM Sanatation and Safety
10:00 AM to 10:50 AM Basic Culinary Skills
11:00 AM to 4:50 PM Basic Culinary Skills Lab

Wednesday:
10:30 AM to 11:20 AM Beginning Golf

Thursday:
8:00 AM to 8:50 AM Baking I
9:00 AM to 9:50 AM Sanatation and Safety
10:00 AM to 10:50 AM Basic Culinary Skills

Friday:
8:00 AM to 11:50 AM Baking I Lab

Boo-yow!

I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream.

I was in Kroger yesterday, my favorite grocery store because it's so ridiculously cheap. They frequently put red and yellow "manager's specials" stickers on highly perishable things close to their expiration date thus making them even cheaper. For example, on many occasions, I have picked up a 4 oz log of goat cheese for 99 cents, four dollars less than full price. Word. Tofu for 99 cents a week before the expiration date. Same with lettuces, other cheeses, and the list goes on.

Peeps, I would swear it's already like a hundred degrees here. Yesterday, I bought a half gallon of 1% milk for 75 cents. You know what that means, don't you? Yup. Ice cream. Or more specifically, ice milk. I also bought a pint of heavy cream. I mixed the cream with five cups of milk. I added enough sugar to make it sweet, but not too sweet. Maybe a cup? I mixed it until the sugar was dissolved and included a tablespoon of vanilla extract. I split it in half to make two batches, strawberry and chocolate chip. I simply followed the instructions for my ice cream maker. About thirty minutes in the frozen bowl is enough. Once the ice cream is about doubled in volume, I add it to a 2 QT container and mix in the strawberries. I gave my strawberries a quick whiz with the ol' stick blender, so they were pretty soupy. Normally you should add the "add ins" during the last couple spins in the mixer, but the ice cream had grown considerably and the strawberries were quite juicy, so I mixed them in the container. I found these great plastic containers at Kroger that are the same size and shape as a paper ice cream container. I am impatiently waiting on the ice cream to set up a bit more before I dive right in. My long and rambling point is...I have 4 QTs of homemade ice cream for about $2.00. How can you beat that? Everyone needs an ice cream maker. It doesn't take up much room in the kitchen. They aren't too expensive. You can also use them to make frozen drinks too! I have a Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream-Sorbet Maker.

If you choose to get one, and I highly suggest you do, here are some rules to which you should strictly adhere. Everything else is completely negotiable. In no particular order:

-Shoot for a two quart batch. If you're adding something in, decrease your milk/cream/dairy/soy/etc product accordingly. In other words, instead of using eight cups of milk, add two cups of fruit and use six cups of milk. Remember that this milk mix is going to grow in volume significantly.

-I find that adding corn syrup to a sorbet makes it scoopable. Otherwise, it seems to turn into a Popsicle. Some kind of a liquid sugar would work, in as small as a 1:4 ratio of liquid sugar:granulated sugar. I'll bet honey or maple syrup would work. Maple syrup would be excellent in a blueberry sorbet. (Oooh, I'll have to try that.)

-You really can add anything to ice cream. One of my personal favorites is the hard, over cooked edges of brownies chopped up. They really hold up well in ice cream. Add fruit, cookie dough, brownies, candy, marshmallows, the sky's the limit.

-Keep your mixing bowl in the freezer. That way you know it'll be good and cold when you're ready. My ice cream maker came with two mixing bowls. One is always in the freezer. If your bowl isn't extra extra cold, you can forget about making ice cream. Trust me on this one.

-If you want to be all fancy-schmancy and make a custard ice cream (the cooked kind with eggs), make it a day ahead of time. The milk mix needs to be very cold when it goes into the very cold mixing bowl.

-Turn on the mixer and pour in the mixture. Not the other way around. What happens is the part of the milk mix that touches the bowl freezes.

-When adding mix-ins, add them when the milk mix is set in the bowl. Give it a spin or two then turn out into your container. To be honest, I've always had a tough time getting my chocolate or caramel ribbon to look like Breyer's. If you figure it out, holla.