Yesterday I spent the afternoon learning a bit more about jams and jellies from Bonnie Shershow of Bonnie’s Jams and Chef Barbara Lynch at Stir.  I got exactly what I wanted and needed out of the class, leaving with questions answered and recipes to be tried eventually leading to more questions. This whole learning to cook, can and preserve, and maintain an edible garden (from which I source some of my ingredients) from books and friends is providing me with skills and an education I am not sure I would obtain in a longterm program. In classes I scheduled on a daily basis, or even weekly one, at some point I begin fidgeting and thinking more about what is for lunch or how much I want to be outside or anywhere but in that classroom. Rarely has there been an exception. That said, I love to read cannot get enough time to read, and I love cooking classes or lectures that only last a few hours.

Back to learning to cook. The other day a good friend, someone who used to work in professional kitchen, said to me “you love to eat, you love food.” I do, I really do…and even more than that I love the culinary world how travel and history are intertwined with recipes, how you can take all these ingredients and create something, and how passionate people are about it. Chef Barbara Lynch is one of those people.  On the two occasions I have spent any amount of real time with her, she has just been on some culinary learning adventure i.e. she traveled a couple hours outside of Strasbourg, France to spend time in Christine Ferber’s kitchen/cellar watching this (the) world class jam maker (aka jam fairy godmother) create extraordinary jams out of a couple copper pots. Lynch said it a couple times, two copper pots, as if she had just opened the door and seen this happen. Chef Lynch is the kind of person who seems not only eager to learn herself, but to share these lessons whatever they may be with others. I had a question about making jams and jellies from recipes that call for Pectin without it. Chef Lynch answered my question, then proceeded to spend a bulk of the class flipping through cookbooks to find a recipe offering specifics (temperature, times..).

A brief overview…the class was not only about how to make jellies and jams without pectin, but about how to use them for something other than spreading on toast. We enjoyed a corn muffin with apricot jam inserted into the middle and a Crostata made by spreading raspberry jam on rich pastry dough, topping with latticed strips of dough and baking. Other ideas are to serve with cheese, mix with whipped cream to use as a topping for angel food or pound cake, and to stir into yoghurt or top on your favorite ice cream.

A few lessons from the class:

1. If you like science check out Harold McGee’s Keys to Good Gooking with a couple pages on making fruit jellies and gums.  *On my own after the class I went through my books on home preserving and found a simple, easy to understand and follow, recipe for making one’s own pectin from apples in Ashley English’s Canning Preserving book. The book only has a few recipes, but it is chocked full of tips and photos making it a terrific resource for a beginner canner (note, her list of canning resources.**Chef Lynch recommended using crab apples, she also said use ripe and underripe fruit (the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Preserving program reads use 3/4 ripe and 1/4 underripe fruit).

2.  Unopened jars of marmalade, jam, jelly can last up to 3 years. Once the sealed jars have been opened, they can be refrigerated (with lids on) up to 6 months.

3.  Bonnie said one only needs to sterilize jars if using pectin or making preserves. She also said one does not need to wait the 24-hours I had been taught (need to check on this, if I find differently…I’ll amend this post) before moving a preserved item unless using pectin.

4. If using pectin use Pomona’s Pectin.  I found some in my local hardware store in the canning and preserving section. Maybe check with your shop clerk to find out if they sell it, might be easier to locate in the summer when canning is in full swing.

5. Use a wood spoon, not a metal one, when stirring the fruit on the stove. The metal spoon will absorb some of the heat, prolonging the cooking time.

6. Read about canning, ask people with a lot more experience than me questions, take classes, and have fun the chances of you killing someone via botulism is highly unlikely when making jams or jellies with foods high in acid. Several kinds of berries–including cranberries, blueberries and blackberries–are highly acidic, as are plums and prunes.

7. The home-canned goods you make are only as good as the fresh foods you start with. Bonnie encouraged make jams using ingredients in season i.e. citrus now is fine, but strawberry and blueberry in the summer and apple in the fall – just as examples.

8. Follow the directions very carefully, read a couple days in advance of when you plan on making the jam or jelly. Recipes using alcohol need to sit overnight.

9. A jam is a fruit preserve consisting of pieces of fruit cooked with sugar until they thicken and partially break down. A jelly is an extracted fruit juice that has been combined with sugar, lemon juice, and (sometimes) added pectin and boiled until it sets. A marmalade is a jelly with clearly defined pieces of fruit suspended in it. (Definitions from Rachel Saunders The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook.)

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