style | food
A few tips:
blackberry & apple jam
With so many blackberries out there to be foraged from the hedgerows and perhaps crab apples too, get on and make an easy blackberry and apple jam - not only lovely on toast but rather nice in place of strawberry jam for the fi lling in an autumn Victoria Sandwich.
Ingredients Makes 2.7 kg
450g Cooking apples (after peeling and coring) 1.4kg Blackberries 140ml Water 1.8kg Sugar
Pectin – this is the setting agent found naturally to some degree in all fruits. Apples and lemons are high in pectin whilst strawberries and blackberries are not. You can add commercial pectin or use jam sugar for a sure set or use lemon juice or apples if you prefer a natural set.
Sugar – should be added over a very low heat and stirred until it has dissolved otherwise it will go hard and burn.
Setting – when the water is reduced, the fruit soft and the sugar dissolved you then increase the heat and boil hard (a rolling boil).
If you’re a novice then there are a few essentials that you’ll need:
A big pot – ideally heavy based to stop jam and chutney burning and roomy enough to allow for a good jam boil.
Jars – these need to be super clean and have either fi tted rust free lids or you can buy waxed discs and cellophane covers
Method
Slice the peeled and cored apples and put into a preserving pan with just enough water to stop them burning and simmer gently until soft.
Wash the blackberries, drain well and put into a separate pan with 140ml of water and simmer until soft. Add to the apples.
Take the pan off the heat, add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Warm your jars in a low oven.
Bring the jam to the boil and boil rapidly for about 10 minutes before testing for a set.
When the jam has set, pot and seal whilst it’s still hot.
A spice bag – this can be any fi ne mesh bag for adding spices without the bits, tied at the top with some string
A jam funnel – essential for jar fi lling without spillage
A jelly bag – if you don’t like bits in your jam then make jelly instead
You should choose ripe but not over ripe fruits and vegetables and cut away any damaged or bruised pieces. Lots of recipes use large quantities but you can make jam with as little as 500 g of fruit and sugar which will give you a couple of pots for your morning toast. Jars should be washed thoroughly and then heated on a baking tray in a cool oven (110 C or gas ¼) to sterilise them and the warmed jars fi lled to the neck using a ladle and funnel. Store in a cool dark place.
Testing for a set – put a small plate into the freezer at the beginning of your preserving session. When your jam has been boiling for fi ve minutes, take it off the heat, put a teaspoonful onto the plate and leave for a couple of minutes. If you can see a wrinkle when you push it with your fi nger it is ready, if not, return the pan to the heat and boil and test again until it’s set.
When it all goes wrong…
Sometimes you don’t get a good set. If you’ve potted your jam or jelly up and it hasn’t set, return it to the pan and boil again until it has. You will need to rewash and sterilise the jars before repotting.
If a piece of fruit in a jam or chutney catches on the bottom of the pan then remove it as it will make the preserve taste burnt. Chutneys are notorious for burning as they are long in the cooking and if you have vegetables and fruits that have stuck to the bottom of the pan you’ll need to transfer the mixture to a clean pan and continue.
If your jam crystallises this is because you boiled the jam before the sugar had dissolved fully or you used too much sugar. Sadly there is no remedy for this and you’ll have to start afresh.
Unfortunately if you over boil jam and it becomes hard or burns, then the bin is the only option…
September/October 2015
71
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