My family has always done canning. I remember my dad and I canning pickles in the fall. The whole house would smell like dill. The most exciting part was listening to all the jars go "pop".
Despite all the canning I helped with as a kid, I've never really done any on my own. Until last weekend. Carol gave me a ton of strawberries left over from the festival, and a bunch of rhubarb from their garden. Strawberry-Rhubarb jam anyone?
My friend Melissa was on hand to help me, she happened to come by while I was in the middle of this process and I put her to work. The concept behind making jam is simple. Cook the fruit down, add sugar, a lot of sugar, lemon juice, and pectin. Then, pour your mix into sterilized jars, and boil or as canners call it, process. Easy enough right? Well somehow, and I don't understand the science behind it, but only half of my dozen jars "set". The rest was runny like syrup.
This is were google comes to the rescue. With jam, as I found out, you can just re-do the entire process. Second time around, perfect jam.
I am excited about the other things I plan on canning. I think up next will be apple butter, and then maybe BBQ sauce.
Anyone else out there can anything?
3 comments:
Lois cans like nobody's business!
Looking forward to trying out your jam -- can't wait for you to try pickles or beans!
I too am trying to can - I did raspberry jam last year and only half of mine set - wish I had known to try again! I am planning to do more jam this year and also applesauce. My garden is available to you if you want more stuff to can - not sure what all will come out of that beast.
Post a Comment