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Strawberries were never this interesting
Jul. 9th, 2015 09:58 amSo we have all these strawberries. It can happen, hereabouts.
Monday's strawberry-and-rhubarb jam is nice. I am pleased with it. But I had no more rhubarb, so yesterday I made strawberry balsamic jam with black pepper.
This, O my people. This is the thing.
Take a kilo of strawberries; hull, halve, quarter if they're huge.
350g of sugar. Stir together, and leave the fruit to macerate for a couple of hours. Stir it every now and then, if you like that sort of thing.
Dump it all into a broad pan, bring to a boil, squeeze in half a lemon and seethe it, stirring every now and then, until it's ready to set. You can do saucer-tests to confirm this, or use a spoon, or just go by eye and ear: when it's sizzling on the bottom of the pan when you draw a spatula through it and it doesn't immediately flood back, when you can actually see the bottom for a moment there, it's pretty much ready. It'll be a soft set, because there's not much pectin in it, but it shouldn't be runny even so. I disavow runny jams.
When you're tolerably sure that it's ready, turn the heat off, and stir in two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and half a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.
Jar it up (you'll get about three half-pint jars out of this), seal it according to your preference (I am all about warm jars, screw the top on and don't worry about it; other people are all about ten minutes in the waterbath or you'll all die; my entire continent has not died yet, but who knows? Maybe tomorrow we will) and it would technically keep for a year or more but I bet you eat it before then.
Monday's strawberry-and-rhubarb jam is nice. I am pleased with it. But I had no more rhubarb, so yesterday I made strawberry balsamic jam with black pepper.
This, O my people. This is the thing.
Take a kilo of strawberries; hull, halve, quarter if they're huge.
350g of sugar. Stir together, and leave the fruit to macerate for a couple of hours. Stir it every now and then, if you like that sort of thing.
Dump it all into a broad pan, bring to a boil, squeeze in half a lemon and seethe it, stirring every now and then, until it's ready to set. You can do saucer-tests to confirm this, or use a spoon, or just go by eye and ear: when it's sizzling on the bottom of the pan when you draw a spatula through it and it doesn't immediately flood back, when you can actually see the bottom for a moment there, it's pretty much ready. It'll be a soft set, because there's not much pectin in it, but it shouldn't be runny even so. I disavow runny jams.
When you're tolerably sure that it's ready, turn the heat off, and stir in two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and half a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.
Jar it up (you'll get about three half-pint jars out of this), seal it according to your preference (I am all about warm jars, screw the top on and don't worry about it; other people are all about ten minutes in the waterbath or you'll all die; my entire continent has not died yet, but who knows? Maybe tomorrow we will) and it would technically keep for a year or more but I bet you eat it before then.
