Making Jams and Preserves Part 1

In order to stretch my culinary skills further each year, I try to set myself an annual target. Last year was the year of developing my skills making sauces, Geoff called it the Saucy Year, though not sure that he was referring to food! Throughout the year I included savoury sauces such as Beurre Blanc and sweet sauces such as Creme Anglaise. That was a great success, as I am now able to make a wide variety of sauces to compliment homemade dishes and feel confident making stocks to compliment these too.


This year I set out to conquer the art of making Jams and Preserves, the topic of this Blog. I have already made a few chutneys and marmalades. Today I have just made Rhubarb with Vanilla Conserve, so as this particular one is fresh in my mind, this the topic for this blog.


I had been lucky enough to have been given 10 stalks of lovely home grown rhubarb from a friends garden (thanks Maureen!) and so proceeded to chop up each stalk into 1 inch chunks, discarding the leaves of the rhubarb as this is poisonous. I placed all of this into a large pan with a 2lb bag of caster sugar that had been previously warmed, for 15 minutes or so, left in it's bag, in the oven. The oven was off, though quite warm as I was also proving my bread dough in there at the same time (as described in another issue of my Blog here).
Next I added the seeds, scraped out of their vanilla pods and the pods themselves in with the sugar and heated the contents until the sugar dissolved. Because I had heated the sugar, this assisted in this process. At this stage I placed a saucer in the freezer, as I would need this later for testing the setting point of the conserve.


I then added the juice of 1 lemon, because lemons are high in pectin needed to help the jam to set. Jam, jelly and marmalade set because of pectin. Pectin occurs naturally in fruit and, when cooked with sugar and the naturally occurring acid in the fruit, thickens and sets the preserve. Citrus fruit, blackberries, apples and redcurrants have high pectin levels. If fruits are low in pectin then fruits with a higher level need to be added, such as the lemon juice.
Rhubarb is not naturally high in pectin, so the juice here is essential. You can buy special Preserving sugar, which includes the pectin, however juice does the same job.


The mixture now needs to boil rapidly for around 20 minutes. During this time I sterilised the jars and lids in a warm oven, the jars had been dishwashed directly prior to this.


Next I needed to test for the setting point of the conserve by spooning a little of the liquid onto my chilled saucer. I left it  minute or two and then pushed my finger through the conserve, looking for wrinkles on the surface. At this point the conserve was a little too liquid. I returned the saucer to the freezer and came back to try again a few minutes later, this time it was fine. If you have a reliable jam thermometer instead, then you can skip this fiddly process and test for the conserve reaching 105ºC).


I skimmed off the scum that had formed over the top of the conserve during the cooking process, if you do this throughout the cooking you can get a lot of waste, it's best to wait until this stage to do this, it is an important step in order to achieve a clear set.
Then, using a jam funnel, I poured the conserve carefully into the awaiting jars. I left all of the jars of conserve to go completely cold and then placed waxed discs on the top of each conserve and tightly screwed down the lids.


The conserve needs to be stored in a cool dark place, I usually keep my preserves in the integral garage, until opened. When opened, store in the fridge and use within 4-6 weeks.


This conserve can be used in recipes too, I have since made some delicious Rhubarb Crumble Muffins, which tasted really yummy, warm from the oven served with homemade vanilla ice cream.


I plan my next preserve making to include Strawberry Jam, so watch this space for more details on this.