Jam!

[shermarama]

Also on Saturday I went to Hampstead Heath. Number 76 on my list of 101 things is making jam from personally-collected fruit and I'm going to call that one done. In the case of the apples, 'personally-collected' means I went round to xanna 's and picked up some of her apple surplus in a carrier bag, which could be considered to not quite count. And Chris collected at least half of the blackberries up on (a very crowded with sunbathers) Hampstead Heath. But I boiled up the fruit on Sunday night and drained it through muslin using a contraption involving gaffer tape and cans, and boiled up the juice on Monday night, and, er, had to nip out to Sainsbury's to get some pectin because it wasn't setting because the apples had been in the fridge for a fortnight, but it set eventually and there it is, sitting in jars looking jam-like. Ace. Having some pectin left over I've half a mind to try and make some jam from random fruit of the sort that needs added pectin, but that probably won't actually happen. I think chutney or pickle is next in line for having a go at, especially with Chris's pickle habit. We're certianly having no trouble producing enough empty jars.

Comments

[purplegril.livejournal.com]

Warm home-made jam is the bestest. I'm extremely pleeased that some new friends are also coming to ATP. I'm so excited I get high-pitched every time I talk about it :D :D :D :D

[fluffymark]

I went blackberry picking last week and it was awesome fun! We got more bagfulls of blackberries than we could possibly carry from the local bit of Epping Forest. :)

Didn't make jam as us uncultured heathens turned the whole lot into blackberry diaquiris. Yummy! :)

[shermarama]

Now, I did mention khalinche's ways with blackberries and vodka while picking them, and I expect we may go back and get some more...

Small niggle

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

That's not jam, that's jelly. Jam is made from the whole fruit, whereas jelly is made from juice.

Re: Small niggle

[shermarama]

I know, I know, and I usually refer to it as jelly myself but I tend to default to jam if I'm not going to also explain to a notional listener what the difference is... Making proper jam is much more hardcore. If I got more expert at jelly I might attempt jam but for now I'll stick to the more foolproof version.

Re: Small niggle

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

You say that, but I find jelly *really difficult* compared to jam (which I mostly get to set alright, rather than much too firmly, now)