Preserving the Season. Mary Tregellas
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(shown opposite).
Slotted Spoon
Scum can form when jams and jellies are cooking, so a slotted spoon is useful for skimming it off the surface. It is also helpful in fishing out stones from cherries, plums, and other stone fruit.
Kitchen Scissors
I find kitchen scissors invaluable in preserve-making, from slicing cooked peel for marmalade and cutting rhubarb into chunks, to chopping chili peppers and dried apricots.
Mouli
Making purées with a stainless steel mouli is a lot easier on the arms than pressing ingredients through a sieve or strainer.
Jars, Bottles, Lids, and Covers
It is fine to reuse jam jars and bottles, as long as they have no chips or cracks, so save them up or ask your friends and neighbors to give you theirs. The most useful sizes are the 12 oz. (340 g) and 8 oz. (227 g) jars. Avoid any that contained very pungent things in a former life.
Lids can also be reused, though with secondhand lids it is advisable to cover the jars with plastic wrap first. Select lids that are not tainted by the smell of the previous preserve—a whiff of gherkin is not great on strawberry jam. For chutneys and pickles, use lids with vinegar-proof linings, as vinegar will corrode metal. You can buy new lids separately, and waxed paper circles, plastic wrap covers, and elastic bands come in packs. Place waxed paper circles (waxed side down) on hot preserves immediately after potting to form a firm seal.
A metal sieve is a good way to spice your preserves without having to worry about any pieces being left behind.
A spiral whisk can also be a handy tool.
A stainless steel mouli will help you strain your preserve mixtures effortlessly.
Mesh spice balls are a great way to add spice flavors to your preserves without having to add the spices directly into your mixtures.
A note on ingredients
Fruit and Vegetables
There is a common misconception that second-rate fruit is suitable for jam—not so. For jam-and jelly-making, fruit should be just ripe or slightly underripe, so that the flavor is at its best, and the pectin content has not started to wane. Riper fruit and vegetables are suitable for chutneys, ketchups, and cordials.
Rinse and prepare produce just before using; drain and dry well. Discard any squashy berries, and cut away bruises from hard fruits. Frozen produce is great for preserves: cook from frozen and adjust the cooking time accordingly.
Try to obtain at least some of your fruit and vegetables locally. Gardens, pick-your-own farms, and farmers’ markets are good places to start. Barter with your friends and neighbors—you are sure to find someone with produce to spare.
Sugars
It is the magical combination of sugar, acid, and pectin that makes a good set. A high proportion of sugar also acts as a preservative, so don’t be tempted to reduce the amount.
High-pectin fruits include cooking apples, redcurrants, blackcurrants, quinces, cranberries, gooseberries, and damsons; medium-pectin fruits include raspberries, apricots, plums (including greengage plums), and, early blackberries; and low-pectin fruits are cherries, strawberries, pears, late blackberries, peaches, and rhubarb.
For jams, jellies, marmalades, and cordials, white granulated sugar serves most purposes, although brown sugar is delicious in marmalades. You can buy sugar that contains added pectin, which is useful with fruits that are low in natural pectin, such as strawberries and cherries. Preserving sugar (which does not contain pectin), sometimes recommended for use with high-pectin fruits, has larger crystals and supposedly makes the clearest preserves, though I never use it.
For chutneys and sauces, various types of brown sugar (demerara, light, and dark muscovado) are more commonly used, giving a deeper color and flavor, though white granulated sugar works too.
Cold Remedy
As well as its uses in chutney-making, cider vinegar is a magical ingredient for curing all kinds of ills. My mother’s favorite cure for colds and flu was to drink hot cider vinegar and honey. Put two teaspoons of cider vinegar in a mug with a level tablespoon of honey. Top up with boiling water and stir until the honey is dissolved. Sip the hot drink slowly, inhaling the steam as you do so.
Spices
Key ingredients in chutneys and sauces, spices give warmth, heat, and fragrance to any recipe. Ready-ground spices are convenient but a little less aromatic. When using whole spices, either tie them in muslin or place in a spice ball and let them swim around in the preserve, infusing it with their flavor; or, for the most flavorsome and potent results, toast the spices in a dry frying pan for 2–3 minutes, and then grind in a spice mill or with a pestle and mortar and add to the preserve.
Vinegars
Vinegar’s acidity gives it the power to preserve, since microorganisms cannot grow in an acidic environment. Most types of vinegar are suitable for savory preserves. Red and white wine vinegars are good all-rounders and work well in most recipes. Strong-tasting malt vinegars have long been used in preserving. Clear distilled malt vinegar is a good choice if you want to keep the color of the original ingredients. Cider vinegar has a fruity taste, and is slightly less acidic than wine and malt varieties. Balsamic vinegar has a lower acidity, so it is not suitable as a preservative, though it can be added for flavor.
General preserving tips
I have a very small kitchen. No fancy equipment. No team of test chefs, just me and the Tasting Panel (my husband and children). And I haven’t had a single cooking lesson in my life—so I can say with confidence that preserve-making has something for everyone to try. Some can be made in an hour, start to finish; others take time and a little advance planning.
Jams
The usual method for jam-making is to cook fruit slowly until it is soft and the juices are flowing. It should be stirred frequently at the start, to prevent catching. The pan is then removed from the heat, sugar is added, and the mixture is stirred until thoroughly dissolved. The jam is boiled rapidly (known as a “full rolling boil”) until setting point is reached. Setting points vary from fruit to fruit, and other factors can affect it too—the size and type of pan, the ripeness of the fruit—so, although the individual recipes indicate an approximate time, it is necessary to test for a set with each batch to be sure (here).
• Do not fill the pan much more than half-full, as the mixture can bubble up quite spectacularly.
• Do not stir jam (or jelly) too often during the boiling stage, as this lowers the temperature (a high temperature is needed to reach setting point).
• Adding fresh lemon juice to low-pectin fruits can help to achieve a set, and it brightens the flavor.
• Adding one to two tablespoons of butter to jams just after stirring in the sugar can prevent scum from forming. If you