Jelly and jam

[JessicaR]

Just finished making strawberry jam! I also made mulberry jelly, pineapple jelly and corn cob jelly, I think next I want to try strawberry-rhubarb jam and maybe peach. Does anyone else make their own jelly/jam?

 

[Miss M]

I am experimenting with honeysuckle jelly and vine peach jelly.

My attempts last year yielded a honeysuckle syrup that was to die for! Then I learned that because it uses less sugar than most jellies, I needed different pectin. I'm ready this time. Oh, look at that... the honeysuckle is blooming!

The vine peaches have barely started blooming yet.

 

[bikegurl]

The mulberries will be ready soon and last year I made a delicious honey-mulberry preserve. This year I'll probably try some more ways of making mulberry jam/jelly/preserves.
After the mulberries come cherries, raspberries, blackberries. Out of those come desserts of course, and then jellies, jams and preserves. So yummy!!
Sadly our strawberries got frosted this year, so we will probably not get enough of those for the freezer jam that I like to make.

Honeysuckle jelly sounds delicious! We have a honeysuckle bush...but it is small, and is finished flowering.

 

[Zinnia]

My favorite is wild grape.

We make strawberry, raspberry, elderberry, current, gooseberry and grape jellies and jams. Also apple butter and rhubarb butter.

My mother always made tomato jelly and corn cob jelly.

 

[the reluctant farmer]

I put up strawberry freezer jam before the season ended here in Georgia, and am picking wild blackberries right now. I like to stick them into the freezer until the weather isn't so blasted hot and then turn them into jelly, but sometimes my desire for blackberry jelly is bigger than my self control and desire to stay cool. If we have a good crop of peppers I may make some pepper jelly, and I've always wanted to make maypop jelly (passionflower--passiflora incarnata) but the fritillary butterflies get to the fruits before I do, so I just harvest a lot of vines for the buns. Accidentally killed my grape vines, so no grape jelly for us.

Miss M, I'd love to see your honesuckly jelly recipe. Wait, I think you gave it to us already last year. Will check.

Yep, here it is in this highly amusing thread: post229159.html?hilit=honeysuckle%20jelly#p229159
Mayhaw jelly anyone?

 

[akane]

Can you make freezer jam out of mulberries? They don't generally sell them anywhere because they don't store at all. I found dried ones once. Otherwise they have to be eaten right away. I let 2 mulberry trees grow and I found like 5-6 of them producing berries around the fishery we like to take the dogs to.

 

[Zass]

Akane, here is one for mulberry and strawberry:
https://anewgreenleaf.wordpress.com/200 ... eezer-jam/

Wild grape jelly is a favorite of mine too!!! We also do peach jam, and strawberry freezer jam, and elderberry jelly most years. Sometimes wild blackberry or black raspberry if I ever find enough. Maybe someday my northern kiwi vines or gooseberry bushes will contribute something... :lol:

We also make wine with any of those found or grown in great enough surplus, except the peaches. Excess peaches are always dehydrated to make a healthy snack item for the kids.

 

[funnies50]

Nope, not me. But whatcha guys are making in your kitchen is makin' me drool. Givie it me!
Jelly!!!

 

[DBA]

Will be making my first batch of raspberry jam in a week or so. Still have 10-15 jars from two years ago.
Next will come blackberry jam. Then Apple jelly.
Frost got our peaches in bloom this spring, so no peach jam and strawberries didn't produce enough this year.

 

[myrkari]

I enjoy making marmalade more than jam/jelly. I also like making a variety of pickles - I've still got some pickled turnips left from early spring, and some pickled fennel. (I make pickled eggs quite often too, because even though we only have two laying hens, we still have leftover eggs occasionally!)

My mom's garden trees aren't going to produce too many apples this year as they did a big pruning/tidying-up session so I won't get as many apples through as I usually get; they tend to get eaten fresh (either by us, the dog, or the buns) or made into dishes, but if there are any spare I might try making some apple preserves of some sort. Last year I made a small batch of apple and carrot jam with lots of spices. It tasted like carrot cake, but it was a bit too "chewy" for my tastes - the carrots never got super soft. Maybe I'll try apple butter or something.

I'm going to make elderflower syrup tomorrow, if the weather is dry. I don't want to pick the flowers when they're damp. I'm interested in trying this honeysuckle syrup too though... I wonder if anyone round here has a plant. I don't.

 

[Miss M]

Miss M, I'd love to see your honesuckly jelly recipe. Wait, I think you gave it to us already last year. Will check.

Yep, here it is in this highly amusing thread: post229159.html?hilit=honeysuckle%20jelly#p229159
Mayhaw jelly anyone?

:lol: That was a fun thread...

The honeysuckles stopped blooming, but they've started back up again. I have experiments to do! I'm trying two different steeping methods, to see which turns out better.

Also, I learned that you do NOT have to remove the green end from the flower. A chef who is known for his honeysuckle treats said he'd never get anything done if he did that. Apparently, he's never had a problem, so I'm not doing it anymore.

 

[Marinea]

We usually make blueberry and strawberry. Assuming, of course, I can convince hubby to not use ALL of h strawberries for home-made ice cream.

 

[funnies50]

:mbounce: Ice cream? Now you've got me!!
Squeal!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I make LOTS of jam. The all time unanimous favorite of everyone is the cantaloupe vanilla jam. It's AMAZING - tastes like a creamsicle. The other two most "impressive" ones have been an amazing Hawaiian pineapple with spiced rum jam with a pineapple I carried home on the plane from Hawaii, and a Pear jam with rosemary and pine bud syrup (that one is sort of fancy-pants - I make it for gifts). But the old standbys are good old plain peach jam with really fresh ripe local peaches and low sugar pectin (so the sweetness isn't so overwhelming), and blackberry jam (also with low sugar pectin). I'm a big fan of cherry butter and cherry preserves as well. And tomato jam is amazing on meats, esp. hamburgers. Though it's not jam, another real favorite is peach BBQ sauce.

I just made a batch of strawberry basil jam last night. YUM!

- Ant Farm

 

[Miss M]

:fainting:

 

[katiebear]

I make LOTS of jam. The all time unanimous favorite of everyone is the cantaloupe vanilla jam. It's AMAZING - tastes like a creamsicle. The other two most "impressive" ones have been an amazing Hawaiian pineapple with spiced rum jam with a pineapple I carried home on the plane from Hawaii, and a Pear jam with rosemary and pine bud syrup (that one is sort of fancy-pants - I make it for gifts). But the old standbys are good old plain peach jam with really fresh ripe local peaches and low sugar pectin (so the sweetness isn't so overwhelming), and blackberry jam (also with low sugar pectin). I'm a big fan of cherry butter and cherry preserves as well. And tomato jam is amazing on meats, esp. hamburgers. Though it's not jam, another real favorite is peach BBQ sauce.

I just made a batch of strawberry basil jam last night. YUM!

- Ant Farm

*ahem..* Recipes, and technique, please...or are you just bragging???

 

[Homer]

,,,
*ahem..* Recipes, and technique, please...or are you just bragging???

:lol: I thought the very same thing. Come on Ant Farm, give it up! You do know we have a recipes section right? :mrgreen:

 

[funnies50]

*sigh*...must do what everybody else does...
Alright, Ant Farm, where are those recipes? I'm gonna try :lol:
:twisted:

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

*ahem..* Recipes, and technique, please...or are you just bragging???

:lol: I thought the very same thing. Come on Ant Farm, give it up! You do know we have a recipes section right? :mrgreen:

*sigh*...must do what everybody else does...
Alright, Ant Farm, where are those recipes? I'm gonna try :lol:
:twisted:

(Note that I use the big Ball canning book as a core reference for techniques and proportions and then wing it sometimes, or I use it to modify recipes I find to make them work better.)

The cantaloupe vanilla jam is out of the Food in Jars book by Marissa McClellan (I think - it might be her second book instead, Preserving by the Pint). These two books are REALLY worth getting!!!! Her website is http://www.foodinjars.com, and many of my favorite recipes came from there, but the cantaloupe jam isn't there, and I don't think it's kosher to post recipes that are published in books and not otherwise posted online (since they're copyrighted). HOWEVER, you can just use regular jam-making techniques/proportions, perhaps using the low sugar pectin label as a guide, and use one really good ripe cantaloupe cut up and cubed, and about 3 or 4 split and scraped vanilla beans. (I have really good vanilla beans and I quadrupled the amount the recipe called for. Just because. ) There's nothing special about the recipe (EDIT - except you cook it down a while until the cantaloupe darkens and mushes up) - it's just that most people don't think about using cantaloupe and vanilla. (Make sure it's really ripe and smells wonderful!!!)

I think the pineapple jam/preserves recipe was a result of a Google search for "pineapple jam", and looking around until I found one that looked good to me and that had rum in it. It also has vanilla (and yes, I doubled the vanilla):https://200birdies.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/pineapple-preserves-with-vanilla-and-rum/

Pear jam with rosemary and pine bud syrup is posted at The Splendid Table website (but is also from The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook, a very pretty but sometimes fussy, fancy-pants jam book). Pine bud syrup is expensive (but as a plus, it's AMAZING to use in custard-type homemade ice cream) - you could try omitting it if you can't find it. I think I may have actually tripled or quadrupled the amount of fresh rosemary (again, excess is best!). http://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/pear-jam-rosemary-and-pine

The peach jam and the blackberry jam are just simple jams based on the label instructions for the Ball low sugar pectin (you should be able to find it in the grocery store - this is the one I use: http://www.amazon.com/Ball-RealFrui...d=1435351399&sr=8-1&keywords=low+sugar+pectin). With this pectin, you just need to be sure you don't add too much or your jam will be REALLY solid. I would have to look at the label to remember what sugar proportion I used, but it wasn't tons. You can adjust to your taste.

The tomato jam I like the best is this one (foodinjars.com): http://foodinjars.com/2012/09/orange-tomato-jam-with-smoked-paprika/
Peach BBQ sauce is out of Preserving by the Pint, can't find it posted anywhere, so you might need to see the book... I modified it by doubling the vinegar and the aleppo pepper.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. Pickled cherries are so good, you will LOSE YOUR MIND!!!! Recipe on foodinjars.com. http://foodinjars.com/2010/08/pickled-sweet-cherries/Take advantage while they're in season!

-Ant Farm

 

[myrkari]

Argh, more recipes I want to try! Thanks, Ant Farm!

I finished my elderflower cordial yesterday - it turned out great, I have half bottled in the fridge and half bagged in the freezer. I also made apple and rosemary jelly, and then apple butter with the leftover apple mush from the jelly making. My kitchen smelled pretty nice all day!