Tim’s brother brought us a second delivery of rhubarb, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. Obviously I crowdsourced, and apparently I’ll be needing to make chutney next 😉
This time though, I was persuaded to give jam a go.
I am very not domesticated. I have gradually taught myself how to put a home cooked meal on the table. I’m getting there with sewing, and I’ve always crocheted pretty well. But jam has always terrified me. I don’t have a thermometer, or special jam pans or any of that stuff, and it all sounds so technical.
I do have a rather nice little book that came with the house though, called Seasonal cookery. And it had a rhubarb and ginger jam recipe in it. Didn’t mention thermometers or any of those things, so seemed to be doable.
Basically, it’s equal amounts of chopped rhubarb and sugar jam (with pectin included). Lemon juice and grated root ginger (except I had stem ginger in syrup, so I mushed it with a garlic grater instead of grating). All of it in a big pan (my stew pot to be exact) and warmed gently until the juices were running out of the rhubarb and the sugar was all dissolved.
The next bit is the slightly scary bit. You have to bring the jam to a rolling boil, and then boil it for 4 minutes. (A rolling boil, in case you’re not sure, is one where you can’t stir it off the boil.)
At the end of 4 minutes boiling, I did the saucer test to see whether what I had was jam or not. This is when you drop a spoonful of your mixture on to a cold saucer to see whether it congeals and develops a skin.
By this time I was being coached on twitter
https://twitter.com/liveotherwise/status/605802703856353281
and the general consensus was that it needed a bit more boiling. (Thanks again Jehefinner 🙂 ) Another minute, and it was much better. In fact, very definitely jam. *And* I didn’t burn the pan!
All in all I was very pleased with myself. It made for a very lovely breakfast the next morning too.
(The SEASONAL COOKERY
shown above came from the cookery shelf in the kitchen when we moved in. I’m gradually thinning down the cookery books, if I don’t use them for a year, they go. This one though, is a little gem. It appears to be out of print, but there are plenty of very cheap secondhand copies via the Amazon link. And there are quite a few other recipes in the book I’m going to be trying.)
I wish instead of learning these things from books, I’d learnt them growing up. At least I can teach my children these things as I learn them. And it did help to have pointers from friends, even if they’re friends I’ve never met.
So, what shall we try next?
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