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Blueberry Lime Jam

Caitlin 8 Comments

I do love blueberries on their own, but sometimes you just need a little something extra to really bring out the flavour of a berry. If you are looking for a jam that really kicks it up a notch, you’ve come to the right place. Adding the juice and zest of a lime or two really enhances the flavour of the blueberries and makes a delicious jam. This recipe is from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. The only change that I make is to use a lower sugar pectin and less sugar, and two limes rather than one, but here it’s written as in Ball.

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Ingredients:
4.5 cups crushed blueberries
5 cups sugar
Zest and juice of 1-2 large limes
1 package of regular pectin (or use low sugar pectin and adjust sugar accordingly)

Here’s what we did:

Prepare the canner, jars and lids. This yields around 6 half pints unless you reduce the sugar.

In a stainless steel pot, combine the crushed berries, lime juice, lime zest, and pectin. Mix well to combine all the ingredients.

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Bring the jam to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly.

Add the sugar all at once when the boil is reached, and return to a boil. Boil hard for 1 minute, then remove from heat and skim off any foam.

Fill the hot jars leaving a 1/4 inch head space. Wipe rims, apply lids, and tighten the bands finger tip tight.

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Process the jars in a boiling water bath canner, covered by at least 1-2 inches of water for 10 minutes, starting the time when the water reaches a full rolling boil. After the 10 minutes, turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, wait 5 minutes and remove the jars to a hot pad or towel. Cool the jars 12-24 hours, remove bands, check seals, wipe clean, label and store.

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Kiwi Daiquiri Jam

Caitlin 7 Comments

The other day they had local kiwis for sale at one of my favourite farm stands just outside of town. “Local Kiwis! Whaaat. Don’t mind if I do,” I thought to myself. So of course, despite having any idea what I might do with them, other then eat a few, I bought a box. Luckily, I found this recipe for Kiwi Daiquiri Jam in my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

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Kiwis are so pretty! Doesn’t it look like eyes with really long lashes?

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Ingredients:
2 cups crushed, peeled kiwifruit
2/3 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
1/3 cup lime juice
1 package regular powdered pectin
3 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup rum (plus a shot for yourself)

Here’s how we made it:
Prepare the canner, jars and lids. This yields about 4-5 half pint jars.

Peel and crush the kiwi. Combine in a stainless steal pot with the pineapple juice, lime juice and pectin. Premeasure the sugar into another bowl for later, the rum into a measuring cup, and a shot for yourself into a shot glass (and one for your helper if you have one).

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Heat the jam to a boil over high heat, while stirring frequently. Once you reach a boil that can’t be stirred down, add the sugar all at once. Return to a boil, and boil for one minute, starting the time once a full boil is reached. After the one minute, pour the 1/4 cup of rum into the jam, and take your shot. Stir it in, and remove from heat.

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Fill the jars, leaving a quarter inch head space. Wipe rims, apply lids, and tighten bands finger tip tight. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes covered by at least 1-2 inches of water, starting the time when a full rolling boil is reached.

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After 10 minutes, turn off the heat, remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes and remove the jars to a hot pad or towel. Cool 12-24 hours, check seals, remove bands, and wipe clean. Label and store.

Gosh dang that’s a pretty jam. This one would make a really pretty gift. And the combo of pineapple, lime and kiwifruit makes for a lovely, tropical flavour.

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Kiwi Daiquiri Jam on Punk Domestics

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Strawberry Freezer Jam

Caitlin 4 Comments

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Freezer jam is a super quick and easy alternative to making canned jam. I love canning, and think everyone should learn how (do it, do it now!!) but there are also a few advantages to freezer jam. First, you don’t have to cook the berries at all. This means you can keep a little more of the natural consistency and taste of the uncooked berries. It’s also faster, and you don’t need a canner, jar lifter or anything like that. I think it’s a great gateway into canned jams, although I did about a million jars of canned jam before ever trying it. But, if you have a little bit of extra freezer space, all you need is the jars, pectin and the berries to make quick an easy freezer jam.

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Ingredients:
4 cups crushed fruit
1.5 cups sugar
1 packet freezer jam pectin

For this endeavor I used Mrs. Wages freezer jam pectin, but Ball and many other brands also make freezer jam pectin.

First, wash, hull and crush the berries.

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Separately, combine the sugar and pectin together and stir to evenly mix them.

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Stir in the crushed berries and then continue to stir the jam for 3 minutes.

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Now all you do is pour it in jars. Leave a half inch or so of head space for the jam to expand when it freezes. Put on the lids and bands. Let it set up at room temperature for a half hour or so prior to freezing it.  You can leave it longer if you want, just not longer than 24 hours. After that just pop it into the fridge or freezer. It will keep around 3 weeks in the refrigerator or a year in the freezer.

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Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Now you really have no excuse to buy store bought jam anymore. This takes under a half hour and yields about 5 jars.

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Quick Strawberry Lemon Marmalade

Caitlin 3 Comments

This quick marmalade is very similar to a jam, but has that added citrus tang that is quite delightful. What makes a marmalade a marmalade anyways? That citrus peel! Try this recipe out once you’ve already made a ton of strawberry jam and are looking for something different but still quick and easy.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup thinly sliced lemon peel
4 cups crushed strawberries
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 package regular fruit pectin
6 cups granulated sugar

Here’s how we made it:
Since this is a quick recipe (some may read “quick” as “cheating” 😉 ) with pectin it doesn’t boil for hours like traditional marmalade, which is what softens up the bits of citrus peel. So step one here is to cut the lemon peel into thin slices and boil it in water for 5 or so minute to soften it a bit. Meanwhile prepare the canner, jars and lids. This makes about 7-8 half pints.

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Then the liquid gets discarded, and you combine the peel bits with the strawberry mash, lemon juice and pectin. I ended up squirting in some additional lemon juice, partially for the shock factor because the other ladies weren’t expecting it, but I also think it gave it a nice extra zing!

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Bring to a boil over high, stirring always. Once at a boil, add the sugar all at once, return to a boil for one minute, remove from heat, skim foam and fill the jars.

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Fill the hot jars leaving a quarter inch head space. Wipe rims, apply lids and tighten bands finger tip tight. Place jars in canner covered by 1-2 inches of water, bring to a full rolling boil and process 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, wait 5 minutes and remove the jars to a hot pad or towel. Let cool 12-24 hours, check seals, remove bands, wipe, label and store.

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mmmm marmalade man. Deeeelish.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Caitlin 10 Comments

Strawberries and rhubarb are perfect for each other – a delicious match of sweet and tart! This recipe calls for a 1:1 ratio of strawberries to rhubarb, but you are welcome to do a little less rhubarb if you want. I love the tartness of it though, and would actually recommend doing this with a reduced sugar pectin and less sugar to really let the rhubarb shine. Here are the ingredients as written in the  Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, but the low sugar sure jell does 6 cups of berries to 4 cups sugar, so I think I’d go for that level of sweetness next time.

Ingredients:
2 cups crushed strawberries
2 cups chopped rhubarb
4 tbsp lemon juice
1 package powdered fruit pectin
5.5 cups granulated sugar

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Step one for this jam is preparing the canner, jars and lids. It’s another pectin recipe so is a quick one. This will yield about 6-7 half pints.

Mix together the crushed strawberries, rhubarb, pectin, and lemon juice in a deep stainless steel saucepan. Measure out the sugar and set it aside so it can be added all at once.

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Bring the jam to a boil over high heat. Stir, stir, stir! Once boiling, dump in the sugar and return to a boil. Once at a full boil, maintain for one minute, remove from heat, skim foam and fill jars.

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Fill the jars, leaving a quarter inch head space. Wipe rims, apply lids, and tighten bands finger tip tight. Place filled jars in the canner, covered by at least 1-2 inches of water. Bring to a full rolling boil, and process for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes and remove the jars to a hot pad or towel. Cool 12-24 hours, remove bands, wipe clean, label and store.

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Such a beautiful and delicious jam!

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Strawberry Jam

Caitlin 2 Comments

Strawberry Jam is the very first recipe in The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, page 8, and for good reason. It’s a delicious, but simple recipe and a great place to start if you are just learning to can. Most fruit and berry jams with added pectin are done very similarly to this, so it’s definitely a great first recipe. We actually had a first time canner with us on this adventure and I think it was a great success – we made 30 jars for wedding favours for Kiki’s upcoming wedding! While Oregon berries aren’t ready just yet, California ones are coming in hot!

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Ingredients:
8 ish cups whole strawberries
7 cups granulated sugar
4 Tbsp lemon juice
1 package regular powdered fruit pectin

Here’s how we made it:
Prepare the canner, jars and lids. This recipe will yield around 8 half pints. Doubling jam isn’t usually recommended because it can affect the set of your jam, so we did multiple batches of this jam instead, one with added vanilla for a fun twist!

Measure the sugar into a bowl and set it aside so it can be added all at once when it is time. Does this sound like too much sugar to you? Ya, me too. Luckily Ball and other companies also have low and no sugar pectin. Get a jar of that and follow those directions for lower sugar jams. The Ball one at least works for anywhere from no sugar to a half cup per two jar batch. So 1/4 cup per half pint jar. But it’s flexible which is super awesome. The instructions work for anywhere from 2-10 jars and sugar is adjustable. Those delicious local berries really don’t need much added sugar so being able to add it to taste is great.

Rinse the berries, and hull them. One layer at a time, mash the berries with a potato masher, and pour the mash into a liquid measuring cup. You want 5 cups of mashed berries total. Crazy Kiki didn’t have a potato masher so you can also use the blender. But you DO NOT want a puree. You want a chunky mash, so just do maybe a cup of berries at a time and give it a quick pulse.

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Once you have 5 cups of mash in a large pot add your lemon juice, and whisk in the pectin to dissolve. If you want a fun modification of this recipe, you can add a half of a vanilla bean at this point to make strawberry vanilla jam. Just put it in now and remove before filling the jars.

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Turn the burner on to high, and bring the mixture to a boil. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. Once at a full rolling boil, add the sugar all at once. Return to a full rolling boil that you can’t stir down. Time one minute of boil, stirring constantly. After one minute, remove the jam from the heat, and skim off any foam. This jam tends to get quite foamy so it’s actually worth it to skim.

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Remove the hot jars from the canner, and fill each jar, leaving a quarter inch head space. Wipe the rims, apply the lids finger tip tight, and place the jars in the canner covered by at least 1-2 inches of water.

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Process the jars for 10 minutes, starting the time when the water is at a full rolling boil. After 10 minutes turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, and wait 5 minutes before removing the jars to a hot pad or towel. Leave the jars undisturbed for 12-24 hours, check the seals, remove the bands, wipe clean, label and store.

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Rhubarb Orange Jam

Caitlin 5 Comments

I’ve been itching to can with the warm weather we’ve been having, but there is not too much in season quite yet. One thing that is ready to go though is rhubarb! So I cracked open my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, looked up rhubarb in the glossary and found this rhubarb orange jam recipe. I went full sugar for this recipe, since rhubarb and orange sounded like quite the tart combination, but you rhubarb lovers are welcome to pick up a box of low sugar pectin if you so desire. It’s really quite a delicious combination of sweet and tart. I enjoyed my little bit of leftovers on an English muffin.

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This recipe yields 7 half pints.

Ingredients:
2 oranges
5 cups finely chopped rhubarb
1 package fruit pectin
6 cups sugar

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Here’s how it’s done. This is a nice and easy pectin jam, and dang is it delicious!

First prepare your canner, jars, and lids. This recipe is a quick one.

Finely chop the rhubarb. Peel one half of one of the oranges and chop the peel finely. Juice the two oranges and measure the juice. You want at least a full cup, so if you don’t have quite enough top it off with a bit of water.

Combine the orange juice, rhubarb and pectin in a large pot. Stir to dissolve the pectin.

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Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Once at a full boil add the sugar all at once. I let it boil a minute or two before adding the sugar, just to get the rhubarb nice and soft.

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Bring the mixture back to a full boil. Stir constantly to prevent burning. Once at a full boil, time one minute of hard boiling. Remove from heat.

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Fill the jars, leaving a quarter inch head space. Wipe the rims, apply the lids, and tighten the bands finger tip tight. Place the full jars in the canner, covered by at least one inch of water. Bring to a full rolling boil and process for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the canner lid, wait 5 minutes and remove the jars to a hot pad or towel.

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Isn’t that a gorgeous jam!?

Let the jars cool 12-24 hours, check the seals, remove the bands, label and store. This jam is delicious and so easy! If you have the canning itch too, make it, you won’t regret it.

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Blackberry Cinnamon Tequila Jam

Caitlin Leave a comment

It’s blackberry season here in the Pacific Northwest, and mama and I sure took advantage of it with this jam. For this recipe we used the sure jell less sugar pectin, but you can use whatever pectin you prefer and adjust the sugar (more or less as you so desire, according to the package). And that’s the beauty of home made! We found the idea for the flavour mixing here. Check it out, it’s an awesome chart! Thanks Erica! Here it is pictured on ice cream. Oh baby!

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Ingredients:
5 pints blackberries
4 cups sugar
1 box sure jell less sugar needed pectin
1.5 tbsp tequila
1/4 tsp cinnamon

The flavour of the cinnamon and tequila both go a long way, so try these amounts first before adding too much more.

Here is what we did:

Prepare the canner, jars and lids. The recipe will yield 7ish half pints.

Pick the berries, then wash them.

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Mash them up with a potato masher.

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Mix the pectin with 1/4 cup of the sugar and mix it in.

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Add in the tequila…. Feel free to put an extra bit in your mouth. This can also be added at the end if you prefer.

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and the cinnamon…

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Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. So rapid it’s a blur!

Once at a full boil, add the rest of the sugar and return to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard for one minute. Remove from heat and skim off any foam.

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Fill the hot jars leaving an 1/4 – 1/8 inch head space. Wipe rims, apply lids and tighten the bands finger tip tight. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner, covered by at least 1-2 inches of water.

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After the 10 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the canner lid. Wait 5 minutes and remove the jars on to a towel or hot pad. Check the seals after 12-24 hours when they are cool. Remove the bands, wipe down, label and store. mmm mmm good. Enjoy on ice cream, scones, whatever!

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Blackberry Cinnamon Tequila Jam on Punk Domestics