Rising up on a farm, with dad and mom who all the time tended to a big backyard, I used to be uncovered to a good quantity of conserving recent produce. beneath the steps in our basement was proof of the various hours Mother spent canning within the kitchen.
Mother’s bounty included jars of beans, peaches, pears, cherries, applesauce, spiced apple rings, apple pie, pickled beets, pickled cucumber of many various sorts, pickled watermelon, tomatoes, ketchup, candy seasonings, a wide range of sauces, sauerkraut, varied fruit jams and jellies, plus my nice-grandmother’s recipe for rhubarb jam with orange slices. (wow!) ohhh, I can style that fairly jam simply serious about it!
as if that wasn’t sufficient, within the giant chest freezer, we had baggage of frozen candy corn kernels and raspberries, nonetheless candy from final summer time’s solar.
Preserving so many merchandise every summer time required quite a lot of time. however come winter, it was a pleasure to give you the option to run down to the cellar for a jar and pop the lid. that product wasn’t plucked recent from the backyard, however it was 100 instances higher than something we may have purchased in a can or jar on the retailer.
Though I want I had the time and vitality to protect the identical goodness I keep in mind from the farm, I simply do not. as an alternative, I concentrate on one or two canning initiatives every summer time, making a number of batches of jam to freeze. I can not resist conserving a few of that lovely summer time fruit.
On this publish, I am right here to speak about no-bake freezer jam. In the event you’ve by no means made frozen jam earlier than, I hope you will be satisfied to give it a attempt. It’s too straightforward. And picture how fantastic some recent berry jam would style within the lifeless of winter, unfold on toast or combined with yogurt! My household particularly likes to add a dollop of jam to a steaming waffle, together with some sweetened, freshly whipped cream.
I used to be very pleased with our strawberry backyard this 12 months. this was the third season since we would added strawberry crops to our backyard, however solely the primary 12 months we would had any type of sizable crop. for the primary time in i am unable to keep in mind how lengthy i did not really feel the necessity to go to a neighborhood u-choose for recent strawberries. we had sufficient candy pink berries from our personal backyard. I used to be dizzy!
The frozen jam is really easy to make that I can actually go the recipe on to our daughters to make on their very own. I am normally within the kitchen, working alongside them, however they actually do not want me there.
I am going to share how to make two of my household’s favourite frozen jams: frozen strawberry jam and frozen pink raspberry jam. (One other one we will not resist making each summer time is the frozen raspberry and blackberry jam.)
To start out the strawberry recipe, recent berries are crushed in a big bowl. I like to use a potato masher or stiff stand mixer, mashing the berries into chew-sized items. our daughters typically take turns, as neither desires to miss out on the enjoyable. then sugar is added to the fruit and left to relaxation for 10 minutes.
Then a field of pectin is added to some water and heated rapidly on the range. add the pectin combination to the strawberries, and the thickening of the jam begins.
then the jam is served in jars. the challenge is much less of a problem when you have a canning funnel to match over the edges of the jars, however this piece of apparatus is unquestionably not a necessity. See that steel funnel within the picture above? that after belonged to my grandmother. I’m wondering what number of jars of jam she made in her lifetime.
Frozen jam typically has a looser consistency than historically made jam. With freezer jam, the fruit does not cook dinner, giving it a brighter, summer time-recent colour and taste. conventional jams are made by cooking the fruit, inserting the jam in sizzling jars, after which boiling the jars in a big pot of sizzling water, a for much longer course of that heats up the kitchen in a short time.
This easy-to-make freezer model additionally requires a unique medium of storage, therefore the title “freezer jam.” it isn’t shelf-steady like conventional jam, so it can’t be saved within the pantry. should be refrigerated (up to 3 weeks) or frozen (up to 1 12 months).
I do know some folks do not like to retailer freezer jam in conventional glass mason jars, for concern that the glass would possibly break within the freezer. however I’ve by no means had an issue with it, and I actually want glass to plastic. In the event you want to use plastic, there are some nice choices, just like the one pictured above with the raspberry jam. simply search for these freezer-protected plastic containers within the canning provides part of your individual retailer.
If you’d like to make frozen jam with fruit aside from the recipes I’ve listed right here for strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, make certain to examine the directions contained in the pectin containers. with every totally different fruit, the preparation and quantities could range, in addition to the quantity of sugar.
and listed below are some useful suggestions to be certain that your freezer jam works completely!
Useful suggestions for an excellent jam within the freezer:
- all the time wash jars completely with sizzling, soapy water earlier than use. then dry them.
- Use agency, completely ripe fruit for finest taste and solidity. inferior fruit will produce inferior jam.
- measure elements precisely. altering the recipes or elements may trigger the jam to not set correctly.
- sure, these recipes name for lots of sugar, however do not mess with the quantity. if you’d like to use much less sugar, search for gelatin protected to use in much less sugar or no sugar recipes within the pink field.
- The completed product won’t be as agency as a historically processed jam, so do not be alarmed. reap the benefits of the spreadable consistency of this easy-to-make jam.
- As a result of this jam is just not cooked, it needs to be saved within the fridge or freezer. Will probably be good for up to three weeks within the fridge, so retailer your jam in smaller containers that may devour sooner; I want to use 1 pint or 1/2 pint jars. hold one jar within the fridge and the remainder within the freezer for later. Once you’re prepared to use the frozen jam, merely place it within the fridge to thaw.
