I am definitely a city girl. Hanging out with my girlfriend Carolyn reminds me of this fact quite often. She grew up on farm property surrounded by animals. She participated in chores related to the farm and spent the majority of her childhood outdoors. I noticed when helping her unpack during her move last Summer, that she had a lot of canning supplies. It was then that I learned that she enjoyed canning and she promised that she would teach me how to make jam. I jumped at the chance when she recently invited me over to attack the neighbor’s Cherry Plum tree hanging over her backyard fence.
With buckets in hand, we went to work on the tree.
We grabbed mostly for the darker pieces of fruit, but after a while we just started grabbing handfuls of whatever. Besides our goal of making jam, we needed to clear the branches because the cherry plums were falling on the ground, staining it, and causing problems with the vehicles parked near.
We collected two buckets of cherry plums. I was super “Miss Perfectionist” (shocking, I know) when it came to making sure all leaves and stems were removed… probably why Carolyn picked 3x’s as many in the same amount of time – there is also that whole “city” vs. “farm” girl thing. She takes care of the stemming when needed during the washing process.
I sampled several cherry plums – picking different shades to see if they tasted differently. I had never tried a cherry plum before and turns out, they are delicious. I didn’t notice that much of a difference in sweetness between the colors. The darker was softer, probably meaning they were more ripe, but that didn’t change the taste.
Carolyn dug out her canning supplies and I got to work rinsing the fruit and jars as she prepped the lids.
Lots of pots, lots of steam and heat filling the kitchen from the boiling water…
The jars went into the pots of boiling water… it took a while to get them upright in the orange pot because the base of the pot was slightly curved. I made the mental note – flat bottom pots are the key to jars staying upright.
We had a few different recipes pulled up on the iPad. Our major inspiration and the one we followed pretty closely was from Kitchen Travels, a blog I frequent regularly.
The sugar, lemon juice and water ingredients were added to the cherry plums and then we turned up the heat.
The size of the potato masher is not an illusion… it was HUGE, like broom handle huge, and it worked perfectly!
Ingredients:
- 10 Cups Whole Cherry Plums
- 6 Cups Sugar
- 1/4 Cup Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
- 1/4 Cup Water
Directions:
- Prepare boiling water in a pot that is tall enough to ensure you have at least 2″ of water covering the top of your jars, plus space to allow for a hard boil.
- Combine all ingredients in a large pot over medium-high heat, stirring and mashing the mixture until the sugar dissolves. (We used a giant potato masher)
- Turn off heat. Place a sieve over a large bowl. Carefully pour the hot mixture through the sieve, pressing on the solids. Set pot aside. Remove pits, reserving any fruit and skins left in the sieve. Add reserved fruit mash to strained mixture. NOTE: You can also run the mixture through a food mill if you have one.
- Return the fruit mixture to the pot. Bring slowly to a boil, then cook rapidly to gelling point. Stir frequently as the jam thickens to prevent sticking or burning. NOTE: We chilled a small plate in the freezer to test the set point. Using a teaspoon, let a few drops of the jam/jelly mixture drip on to the chilled plate and allow it to cool for a short while. Push your finger sideways against the jam/jelly. When it is at the right setting point, the jam/jelly should be sticky and a gel consistency.
- Once you get the right consistency, remove from heat. Ladle hot jam/jelly into clean, hot jars and seal. NOTE: For Ball or Kerr style jars, leave 1/4 inch head space. Wipe rims to dry and top with hot lids. Screw bands onto the jars just until finger tight. Carolyn’s method included turning the jars upside down. She shared that “flipping the jars over” to seal them, works really well. NOTE: Most canning websites and books recommend you use a full hot-water bath for canning jam, not the flipped jar method. Whatever, Carolyn’s method worked great!
It was during the “Place a sieve over a large bowl. Carefully pour the hot mixture through the sieve, pressing on the solids.” step where our cherry plum jam became cherry plum jelly. The green plastic ring of the sieve ripped away from the mesh when we used a spoon to mash the cherry plums. Total bummer… we had decided not to pit them before hand, because on several of the sites, they mentioned the sieve or food mill way and we thought we’d be good to go. We opted to just go with the smooth texture… so jelly it was! The whole process is about timing everything and we certainly didn’t have time to run to the store to buy a new sieve and the mixture was way too hot to sort out the pits by hand.
This is where the wine drinking came into play. It should probably be part of the ingredient list 🙂 – you know, to keep your sanity while juggling all the boiling pots, sticky surfaces, jars, spoons and plates.
Once we got the mixture to the right gel consistency (after the plate test) – we ladled the jelly mixture into the hot jars using the canning jar lifting tongs and funnel.
We put Carolyn’s upside down trick into action and then they sat overnight. Our fingers were crossed that the lids would pop and they did. Carolyn assured me that it’s not a big deal if one doesn’t seal, you just need to refrigerate and eat it as soon as possible. Our brains were already thinking… on toast, over ice cream, etc.
Turns out that we probably heated it for two long before getting to the gel consistency… the jelly was pretty thick and a little hard to spread once chilled, but the taste was still there. The perfect amount of tartness, I don’t like super sweet jelly or jam.
Now I just need to learn how to make pepper jelly with my friends Tom and Paul. They got me hooked on their pepper jelly and eating it on eggs. Love the combo – oh so delicious!
Thanks Carolyn for letting me play in your kitchen and for teaching me about canning. It was a fun afternoon for sure. Now hurry up and start posting to your blog so I can link to you.
Question: What’s your favorite jelly/jam or preserve? I’m a strawberry preserves gal, with apricot preserves running a close second. We are a multiple jelly/jam/preserve jar family. Dan’s favorite is red raspberry preserves.
After answering that question, I realized… hmmm, I don’t really know the difference between the varieties. So to the Internet I went. Source: The Nibble
Jelly is a clear, bright product. It is generally made by cooking fruit juice and sugar with pectin as a gelling agent and lemon juice as an acid to maintain a consistent texture. Jelly is firm and will hold its shape Generally, jelly contains no pieces of fruit, although specialty jellies, like pepper jelly, may include pieces of pepper.
Jam is made from crushed or chopped fruit cooked with sugar, and often pectin and lemon juice. Jam can be a puree of fruit or have a soft pulp, but it does not contain chunks of fruit.
Preserves are fruit cooked with sugar to the point where large chunks of fruit or whole fruit, such as berries, are suspended in a syrup base. The texture of preserves is not smooth like jelly or jam.
Marmalade is a soft jelly, often citrus-based, that includes both the flesh and peel of the fruit suspended throughout the jelly base. The bitterness of the peel offsets the sweetness of the jelly.
Well that didn’t really clear up anything… not sure if we ended up with jam or jelly, ha! ha! It was made from crushed fruit, cooked with sugar, no on the pectin, yes on the lemon juice… it was a puree of fruit… no chunks…. so that’s jam… but it also fits the jelly description. I’m still confused.
