For those of you who know me or who have been following this blog a while, you know that I like to can things. I’m good at canning applesauce; jam, well, that’s a project I’ll try again this summer. For a long time information on home canning was a little scarce and a little staid, but with the rise of people really questioning what they eat, where it comes from, and how it was made, preserving your own food is becoming popular. Here’s a link to the New York Times’ article today that gets into the subject in some detail, noting that it’s part of a trend including baking your own bread. I have a loaf about to go in the oven myself, and I made some mozzarella an hour ago. Course I just ate a Hebrew National hot dog, a handful of Lays chips, and a Vlasic pickle for lunch, but I can’t change everything at once!
Maybe we’ll try pickles again this year–we made them once years ago and it was a disaster and a mess. Hmm….so long, Vlasic!
Jam’s easy. Little kids can do it at summer camp over a campfire.
Well, that’s nice for them. Last year when I tried to do it without added pectin, it became just syrup. I reboiled–still syrup. I added pectin and reboiled–slightly less syrupy. So we’ll see what happens this year. I think I’ll get some no-added-sugar pectin, use whatever recipe they provide, and see what happens. Strawberries should start showing up in the next couple of weeks….if I could find some cherries, too, that would be awesome.
Do you can, Cynthia?
Here’s how you can can something without pectin:
http://motherskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/09/canning-jam-without-pectin.html
Thanks! I’ll have to try–I think my problem before was that I altered the sugar content so it didn’t quite set up enough.