Jammin' with Rose Jam

A batch of Rose Petal Jam from a never-before-used bush.

I've had it for a while. All the rain is making it very happy. 

Got three roses from it last week -- enough for a batch of jam. 

The petals. 

The jam.

Here's the recipe, super easy AND fast:

Rose Petal Jam (Uncooked)

Yield: about 3.5 cups 

Ingredients:
1 c fresh rose petals (must never have been sprayed with any chemicals)
3/4 c water
juice of one lemon (no substitutes)
2 1/2 c cane sugar
1 pouch Certo pectin

Make:
In blender -- puree petals, water + lemon (be sure to put lid on blender)
Slowly add sugar, stirring as you add
Add pectin, blend for about 1 minute
Pour into clean jars quickly (it sets up fast)
Let set for 6 hours
Refrigerate/Freeze

Recipe from:  recipegal.com (url no longer active) 

Need step-by-step images? Click here.

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From Farm to Jar: A Cross Continental Odyssey

This is a story of how berries from Dempsey Farms of St. Helena's Island, SC 

journeyed to western Los Angeles to become awesome Strawberry Jam.

The U-Pick strawberry field.

Severo gets his bag and bucket for picking.

Into the field with Mom and Severo.

Severo and his first berry.

Severo in the field.

I refused to pick berries. I sketched Severo in action instead.

Another action sketch.

"I'm done."

Hulling the berries for that night's Strawberry Shortcake and for freezing.

For freezing, berries are spread on a tray. After they are frozen, they are packed in a zip-lock bag.

During our trans-continental flight, the berries thawed, so I made Strawberry Freezer Jam.
THREE batches! So yummy!

Linking with Catherine's #SaturdayShareLinkup

Blueberry Marmalade

I love blueberry pie. I wasn't loving "freezer" blueberry jam, which isn't cooked. It dawned on me recently, why not make a cooked blueberry jam? I found just the thing in Preserving the Taste, by Edon Waycott (out of print, available used or try your library).
Here is my adaptation:

Ingredients

• 1 orange plus juice
• 1 lemon plus juice
• [total juice should equal 1/2 c]
• 1.5 c water

• 4 c  fresh blueberries or 2 12oz bags frozen, thawed, crushed
• 3 c cane sugar
• 1/4 tsp cardamom

Directions

• Cut off ends of orange and lemon, extract juice
• Seed then pulverize all in a food processer, place in good sized pot
• Add water, boil 10 minutes
• Add juice, boil another 15 minutes
• Add blueberries, sugar, spice
• Cook uncovered 20 minutes or until reaches set temperature of 220º
• Fill jars, process to seal or freeze

Guava-Lemon Marmalade

Sheer ambrosia! Fantastic on plain yogurt.

[Originally posted 1/24/14. Updated and republished, 5/28/16] 
I've made some adjustments to what I originally had here.
I think it's better and easier now. 

Guava-Lemon Marmalade
yield 6 8oz jars
(adapted from this recipe by Jen on Just a Pinch. Her recipe is strictly guavas, no lemon)
Note: I'm still working this out, the latest batch I finely chopped the seeded lemon, but thinking that throwing it into the food processor with the guavas would be even easier. WIP notes to self in blue italics.

Ingredients

• 20 medium sized ripe guavas
• water as needed
• 1 lemon, juiced, seeded, [rind and pulp cut into small dice? Or add chopped to processor?]
• 3 c sugar
• 1 pinch salt

Directions

1. Wash and remove stems off the guavas, scoop out the seedy centers. (I discard, Jen uses).
2. Cut the guava pulp with skin into quarters and place in a food processor to puree. [Add chopped lemon?] and juice, and enough water to help the mixture liquefy. Blend it really well.
3. Combine puree with the sugar into a pot. 
4. Cook on high until it comes to a boil, stirring constantly as to avoid sticking or burning.
5. Add the pinch of salt and lower to medium heat, high enough so that it still bubbles. Continue to cook and stir occasionally for about 30 minutes. [Because of the added lemon, it gelled for me in 10 minutes].
6. Decant into jars and process (I freeze).

Fig Jam

Severo brings home reject figs from his day job as a produce pro at a local grocery store. I've always liked dried figs, but fresh figs I still avoid. (Is it a texture thing?) Fig jam is a nice half-way point and it tastes great on yogurt.

My starting point was the Fig Preserves recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, ed Judi Kingry & Lauren Devine ISBN 978-0-7788-0131-3 Their version is too labor intensive (it's for fruit kept whole) and calls for perfect firm fruit.

Here's my version:

Fig Jam

Ingredients

8c whole figs

8c boiling water

2-2/3c sugar

1 whole lemon, seeded and chopped

Using a glass or stainless steel bowl, cover the whole figs with boiling water

Let stand for 15 minutes

Drain the figs in a colander placed over another bowl -- SAVE THE WATER*

Pour 1/2 the water into a saucepan. Add sugar and chopped lemon.

Boil hard, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes

Meanwhile, coarsely chop figs

Add figs to pot, bring back to full boil, boil until mixture reaches 240º

Pour into jars

Freeze or process in canner

*About that extra fig water -- drink the rest! It's good for you!

Easy Seville Orange (or any citrus) Marmalade Recipe

I posted a Seville Orange Marmalade recipe back in December. Later I found out that Roxanne and I used Calamondins, another variety of bitter orange. Sevilles have a thick wrinkly skin.

For the following batch, I used the recipes that I also used to make Lemon Marmalade back in February.
I didn't have a printout and was using my tablet and found I was jumping between my recipe and another source recipe.
To make things easy, I've combined both of them here, with lots of photos.
Text version is at the bottom.

I noticed that I was losing lots of precious juice onto the cutting board as I extracted the seeds, so I juiced the oranges before removing the seeds.

Here is the recipe in text:

Orange (or any citrus) Marmalade
for any quantity of fruit

1) Cut oranges in half and squeeze the juice. Pour juice into a food processor.

2) Remove seeds with a grapefruit knife.

3) Cut into 3/4" sized chunks, place in food processor and grind to a mash. Small chunks are OK.

4) Pour into LARGE sauce pan (I use a stock pot).

5) HERE IS THE WATER : SUGAR RATIO (from above source)
Pour in water a cup at a time until the fruit is almost covered.
Then add the exact same quantity of sugar.

6) Stir and heat to rolling boil. Be sure to supervise this step.
You don't want the mixture to boil over and get all over the stove. It is no fun to clean. I speak from experience!

7) Reduce heat enough so that the boil is maintained but not so furious that you have to stay in the same room.

8) In 30-60 min, it should start to gel. Avoid overcooking, or it will turn to rubber.
The "spoon test" is the best method to determine gel state if you don't have a candy thermometer.
If you do, cook until it reaches 220°F.
After a few batches, you'll get a "feel" for it -- gelled jam gets a heaviness when stirred and wrinkles start to form on the top surface.

9) Pour into jars and process, store in freezer, or consume.

For this batch, I had 8 baseball-sized oranges, which yielded  10.5 8oz jars.

Lemon Marmalade Recipe

My friend Francis had an abundance of lemons and I happily took a bagful off his hands.
Michael, my Qi Gong teacher, mentioned making lemon marmalade, which I had never considered.

Online explorations delivered the two recipes that I used.
The first is actually the basis for the second.

From the first recipe come the ingredients, it makes a VERY SOUR jam.
10 large lemons will yield approx 13 cups.

Ingredients:

• 10 large lemons
• 4 cups water
• 4 cups sugar

So simple!
(What the second recipe will give you is the ratio to use if you have more or less than 10 lemons).
I then went rogue and didn't follow either recipe -- partly because I wasn't paying attention.

Preparation:

 

1) Quarter and seed lemons (I leave the rind + pith, which is why it's so sour). Chop to 3/4" bits.
Place in food processor and grind to a mash. Chunks are OK.

2) Pour into LARGE sauce pan (I use a stock pot).

3) Add sugar. (I overlooked don't bother to precook the mash).

4) Stir and heat to rolling boil. Be sure to supervise this step.
You don't want the mixture to boil over and get all over the stove. It is no fun to clean. I speak from experience!

5) Reduce heat enough so that the boil is maintained but not so furious that you have to stay in the same room.

6) In 40-60 min, it should start to gel. Avoid overcooking, or it will turn to rubber.
The "spoon test" is the best method to determine gel state if you don't have a candy thermometer.
If you do, cook until it reaches 220°F.

7) Pour into jars and process, store in freezer, or consume.

Calamondin Orange Marmalade Recipes

My friend Roxanne has a glorious Seville Calamondin Orange tree in her yard in Tujunga.
Our schedules aligned perfectly yesterday, and we were able to spend an evening together, experimenting with marmalade recipes.

We started with this basic recipe :

Seville Orange Marmalade
adapted from Small-Batch Preserving
Makes approx 6c

2lbs Seville (sour) oranges
2 lemons
4c water
1/4 tsp baking soda
4c sugar

Cut fruit in half, remove seeds, chop, then pulse in food processor
notes: wear gloves, work on glass (very acidic juice!)

Place in deep stew pot with water
Bring to boil, cover, boil gently 25 min

Add baking soda, cover, boil gently 20 min

Add sugar, boil rapidly uncovered until mixture forms a gel (about 20 min)
Stir frequently!

Ladle into jars and process

Then we got fancy!

Seville Mojito Marmalade
2lbs Seville (sour) oranges
3 limes
2" piece of fresh ginger (could have used 4")
4c water
1/4 tsp baking soda
4c sugar
1/2c chopped fresh mint
1/2c rum (or more)

follow the same steps as above
slice or dice ginger
add mint + rum with sugar

Savory Seville Marmalade
2.5 lbs Seville (sour) oranges
4 roasted chiles (Hatch, poblano, jalapeno, or...)
4c water
1/4 tsp baking soda
sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme
1/2 c chopped basil
4c sugar
roasted garlic (trying next time)

Again, same steps as above
Peel + pulse chiles with citrus
Add herbs with baking soda, remove woody stems before adding sugar
Add garlic with sugar

Savory Seville Marmalade served on garlic toast with goat cheese and garden arugula

Recipe: Rose Petal Jam

This is a repeat post of this recipe, now with more step by step photos.
For printing, I suggest going to that post.

I used two medium roses -- just the petals

recipe from:  recipegal.com (url no longer active) 
Yield: about 3.5 cups 

Ingredients:
1 c fresh fragrant rose petals (must never have been sprayed with any chemicals)
3/4 c water
juice of one lemon (no substitutes)
2 1/2 c cane sugar
1 pouch liquid pectin (works best)

Make:
In blender -- puree petals, water + lemon (be sure to put lid on blender)
Slowly add sugar, stirring as you add
Add pectin, blend for about 1 minute
Pour into clean jars quickly (it sets up fast)
Let set for 6 hours
Refrigerate/Freeze

get your clean jars set out

measure all the ingredients

petals, lemon, + water after blending

adding the sugar

adding the pectin

pouring the jam into the jars
I use a canning funnel so it goes into the jars cleanly

jars filled

From the Archives: Preserves Portraits, a Series for My Dad

This series of still lifes arose out of my need to honor my father, who passed away in March 1996.

Annually, my parents put up jams, storing them away all year and then distributing them at Christmas.
Dad was the force behind the whole process -- picking the berries, cooking up the sweetness, carefully sealing and labeling the jars.

I decided to paint portraits of the various flavors as I consumed them. The level of the jam goes down over the course of time, taking on more and more of a glow, and I have discovered that the jar is never completely empty.

The entire first set: Orange Marmalade
painted at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, March 1996

Happy Father's Day, all you dads!

Christmas Tradition: Popovers for Breakfast

Here is the recipe from my 1943 edition of Fannie Farmer
I now ignore that "1/2 for 2" notation

cast iron "gem pan"
tip: put it in the oven while preheating

the ingredients are simple:
flour, salt, eggs, butter, milk

I mix it all in the blender

I wind up filling the cups about 2/3 full

here's how they look after 20 min @ 450˚

another 15 min @ 350˚ and they're done!

while waiting, I get out all the jams
this year's array, left to right:

Deborah's fig [too old to eat]

my Raspberry [killer]

my strawberry

Linda's + my Almond Brandy Plum

Linda's + my Plum

my Seville Marmalade from Roxanne + Ed's tree

my Mango

Trader Joe's Lemon Curd [oh, my]

Hill Orchards (RI) Apple Butter

Hash House (Las Vegas) Apple Butter [OMG]

Hash House (Las Vegas) Persimmon [insipid]

Loretta Lynn's (TN) Southern Peach Pecan [one of Sev's faves]

Vallee Blueberry [yum]

the table is set...

YUM!

[2022] Linking up with Shelbee's On the Edge

[2023] Marsha in the Middle