jam

One of A's favorite thing to eat for lunch is peanut butter and jelly.  We go through a lot of jam and peanut butter in my house.  I was at the market and strawberries were only one dollar a pound and peaches were 99 cents a pound.  So I decided to make some jam.  These recipes are without pectin.

Peaches and sugar.  Let it sit for an hour before cooking.

I used yellow and white peaches.

Chopped strawberries

Peach Jam

recipe from Food and Wine 

2 1/2 pounds of peaches (washed & cut into small pieces, you can leave the peel on)

1 1/2 cups of sugar

2 Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

In a nonreactive saucepan, toss the peaches with the sugar and let stand until the sugar is mostly dissolved, 1 hour.

Add the lemon juice to the peaches and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the fruit is glassy and the liquid runs off the side of a spoon in thick, heavy drops, 20 to 25 minutes or do the cold plate test**. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface of the jam. 

Spoon the jam into three sterilized * 1/2-pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch of space at the top. 

You can store the jam in the fridge and eat or place the jars back into boiling water for 5 minutes.  The jars should be covered in about 2 inches of water.  Take the jars out of the pot and cool on the counter.  If you can press down on the dome lid and it does not pop back up, the seal is good.

*To sterilize the jars:  If you are making a lot of jam then you can throw everything into the dishwasher (without soap) and just run the dishwasher.  I made a small batch so I boiled the jars for about 25 minutes.  You also have to boil the tongs you use for handling the jars and lids.  Just hold the bottom half of the tongs in boiling water for a minute.  Dip the lids for several seconds into the boiling water and that should be fine. 

**Cool a plate in the freezer. To test for the jelly stage, pour a small quantity of jam (maybe 1/8 tsp) onto the cold plate and chill it in the freezer for about 30 seconds. If the test jam is firm to the touch and has the texture you want for your batch of jam, then it is done. Remove from heat.

On a thermometer, the jelly stage is around 200 to 220 Degrees F.

 

Strawberry Jam

2 pounds of strawberries (washed and chopped)

3 1/2 cups of sugar

1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice

Mix all the ingredients into a non reactive pot and bring to a boil.  Stirring occasionally.  Then reduce the heat to medium.  Stir to make sure the sugar has dissolved.  

Simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the fruit is glassy and the liquid runs off the side of a spoon in thick, heavy drops, 20 to 25 minutes or do the cold plate test**. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface of the jam. 

Spoon the jam into three sterilized * 1/2-pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch of space at the top. You can store the jam in the fridge and eat or place the jars back into boiling water for 5 minutes.  The jars should be covered in about 2 inches of water.  Take the jars out of the pot and cool on the counter.  If you can press down on the dome lid and it does not pop back up, the seal is good.
 

Final step.  The jars must be submerged into boiling water for 5 minutes.

peach & strawberry jam

This is how much it made.