For some of you, this tradition goes WAY back.
We found a local grower and picked up some nice blackberries. I called and they took my order, picked these fresh, and called me to come pick 'em up.
Carefully handle and rinse a layer at a time. Gently turn them as you rinse. Remove anything you don't like the looks of as you rinse....these aren't "store" berries. There will be little critters, stems, leaves and stuff. You'll need a gallon of plump berries.
Eat some after rinsing. You want a good flavor that's tart. Eat some more.
Smash them in a colander or modern fruit press. Don't go too fast or things get too foamy. DO NOT use a food processor or you'll get nothing but purple foam. Spoon out the mess you made into another colander and set it in a bowl to drain. Skim off any foam on the juice and put it into the draining colander. Repeat until all are smashed or eaten.
We don't like those hard seeds in our jelly. Strain the juice through a fine strainer. You'll have to use a spoon to gently and slowly stir to allow the juice to strain through. Spoon the solids into the draining colander. Repeat until all the juice is strained. You need 4 cups of juice. Ate too many didn't you? Go to the draining colander and do your best to smash out more juice, skim, strain, and add.
There are differing opinions on cooking. The traditional method is 1:1 juice and sugar. It's nearly impossible for me to explain HOW to do this. It's all "when it looks like this, do that". I can do it, but can't describe it here. This method is more flexible for a small batch. Like when you eat too many berries or have a small amount of fruit that needs to be used for something before it spoils. Consult your local Elders. They know this stuff and might be happy to share their knowledge and kitchen in exchange for a jar and some good company.
The method we use is best for large batches and the recipe is with the package of LIQUID pectin. It requires lots of sugar and less cooking time. It's not difficult at all. I haven't had good results using dry pectin.
After cooking, fill the jars and seal. Let them cool enough to handle and move ONCE to a place where they can finish. Leave them alone. The only thing you need to do is make sure the lids have pulled in and don't pop or flex up and down when you press your finger on them.
If they flex, I suggest you refrigerate and see if the jelly sets up. Give it a few days. If it never sets up and stays syrupy, make pancakes...you with me on that? Make something Chipotle with it. Glaze some lamb. Use it with pheasant, duck, or goose....or vodka. Just don't toss it.
Once it sets up. Hide it. In-laws and outlaws will show up and take it.
Oh I'm gonna have a field day with this thread. Ive made a lot of shelf stable all natural jam and jelly recipes. Fun with food chemistry. Recipes include coconut, watermelon, banana, bananas foster, and a ton of others. I used to sell recipes. I gotta dig out a few.
This is gonna be fun.
Edit: some.of these are kind of advanced recipes and I need to make sure if I'm gonna share any that I give sufficient detail on how to do it safely.
I used to grow boysenberries in my backyard and my wife would make preserves. These days I just buy Knott's Boysenberry preserves. Lately I've had to settle for jam as no one has the preserves anymore. Knott's was bought by Smuckers and I think they're changing the line up.
Growing up that was something that my Mom would do every year with fruit off our trees. Back then I thought it was no big deal. Now looking back I realize how special that was. I might have to go down that path myself (knowing that as with most things, there is LOTS of info in this group) and at all times resisting the temptation of going down the fork in the road, adding yeast, and creating another fruit byproduct with good storage qualities...- john
Man, that looks like a lot of work :o Personally, I prefer preserves and jam over jelly. My favorite is cherry preserves, but just about any berry will do, too! :al
Quote from: Brewcrafter on May 20, 2023, 03:01:13 AMGrowing up that was something that my Mom would do every year with fruit off our trees. Back then I thought it was no big deal. Now looking back I realize how special that was. I might have to go down that path myself (knowing that as with most things, there is LOTS of info in this group) and at all times resisting the temptation of going down the fork in the road, adding yeast, and creating another fruit byproduct with good storage qualities...- john
Do you have any good recipes for another fruit by product(LOL) using giant, beautiful golden pears?
Have one and only one pear tree in my yard! And every year, I literally rake up hundreds of pounds of pears and throw them away!
Sometimes, I have so many types of bees out there feasting on them, now I know why they always wind up sleeping over in the rotten ones lol!
Also I realize this recipe doesn't explicitly call for a boiling water bath, and you don't specify that they need to be refrigerated for storage.
I dint know how many of you have spent much time on the NCCHFP website, or if any of you have ever had to deal with a food safety process authority, or if anyone else has a BPCS certification.
On paper a recipe using a 1:1 fruit:sugar ratio is probably gonna be ok most the time. But botulism isn't something to mess around with. It doesn't give you the runs, it paralyzes your respiratory system and people die every year from home canned food. It's colorless, odorless, and tasteless. I dont tell people what to do with their own respiratory systems. But to me if it didn't get a BWB its going in the fridge for long term storage. A lot of commercial jellies don't get the BWB or steam kettle treatment, but those are very precise recipes made in a commercially sterile environment. Most home kitchens can't approach commercial sterility.
I have so much more to add to this thread. Ive made probably a few thousand gallons of jam and jelly in my life. I have a lot more experience there than i do with fishing or tackle.
I was just thinking the other day my store bought 'jam' is what we used to call jelly. Hardly a lump of strawberry in the whole jar.
Looks like my young pear tree is only going to provide me with 2 pears this first year
if I am lucky and they survive the growing season. My Plum on the other hand has already dropped around 100 marble sized fruits and still has 100 or so ping pong ball sized fruits still on it. My Peach has 50 or so good sized. Im hoping to get a dozen jars of jam between the peach and the plum and still enjoy eating a bunch of fresh fruits. :d
Two summers ago, Jennifer made a batch of Peach Jam, Butt with an amped-up style.
(https://alantani.com/gallery/37/7588-200523183955-37966463.jpeg)
Peach jam with a shot of Rye Whiskey & Cardamon seeds!!!
Both Ted and Gary gave it THUMBS UP :o
Wayne
Quote from: JasonGotaProblem on May 20, 2023, 01:32:53 PMAlso I realize this recipe doesn't explicitly call for a boiling water bath, and you don't specify that they need to be refrigerated for storage.
The instructions that come with the liquid pectin specify this process. I would add that vinegar helps prevent hard water deposits on the glass, lids, and rings. Personally, for me and my jelly-making over decades, refrigeration before unsealing hasn't been a problem. Most of it disappears, which should be part of the plan when you preserve food.
Safety is a subject that has no viable possibility for objections. On any matter, for any process in any practice of any kind, safety will be stated, overstated, repeated, and especially when funded, will be accepted science regardless of total accuracy, necessity, and in some cases without a basis from actual incidents. On the other hand, my grandparents and their grandparents stored canned goods in cupboards, cellars, at or below the permafrost in the ground and I'm here along with billions of others. Everyone adopts a safety standard of some kind. For example, I WILL NOT preserve meat in a sealed jar without using a pressure cooker. I will, however, fry a turkey outside with bugs flying around and birds flying overhead. Unsafe food handling? I can't get wrapped around the axle about the dichotomy of safe food handling. Some of the best BBQ places are the dirtiest places that don't practice the established science of food handling. (Served on certified sterile butcher paper, is it?) We both know this as fact but will stand in line to get some of that stuff.
Quote from: ExcessiveAngler on May 20, 2023, 06:33:16 AMbeautiful golden pears?
I don't think I have that one. I don't like pears, Except what my Grandmother canned. She cooked long slices of those hard, green pears in a syrup. It set up so thick that it could bend a spoon when you tried to get some out. The pear slices weren't as grainy and were as soft as peaches. Those folks knew how to do all that cool stuff that makes us fat and happy!
Quote from: El Pescador on May 20, 2023, 06:42:36 PMPeach jam with a shot of Rye Whiskey & Cardamon seeds!!!
Man! That sounds good. Those seeds give a little surprise every few bites.
Quote from: JasonGotaProblem on May 20, 2023, 01:32:53 PMI have so much more to add to this thread. Ive made probably a few thousand gallons of jam and jelly in my life. I have a lot more experience there than i do with fishing or tackle.
pretty interesting Jason.
are you Chemist ?
Couple of things. I generally agree with what you're saying, I've worked in restaurants. A lot of food is quite dirty. From bottom of the barrel to fine dining, cost of the food has no relation to how clean it is. If you're afraid of dirty food dont ever eat out. But youre right that sometimes some of the best food is dirty food.
I will say though that the "our grandparents" argument tends to forget that their recipes were often 2:1 sugar to fruit, or more. And they also would dare eat canned vegetables that hadn't been re-cooked. So there's a bit of danger in relying on that logic.
I guess my thought is that in general recipes for any kind of canned product needa an explicit statement about processing and storage.
Also if you've never tried pomona pectin consider this an enthusiastic unpaid endorsement. Thats the best pectin on the market. It always sets. Some say it'll gel cold water. Thats a bit of a stretch. But I bet it'd gel cold lemonade.
Quote from: steelfish on May 20, 2023, 09:27:38 PMQuote from: JasonGotaProblem on May 20, 2023, 01:32:53 PMI have so much more to add to this thread. Ive made probably a few thousand gallons of jam and jelly in my life. I have a lot more experience there than i do with fishing or tackle.
pretty interesting Jason.
are you Chemist ?
Amateur food chemist/former small batch hot sauce company owner/sold a ton of recipes after that but all included an NDA so no specifics will be given.
Quote from: JasonGotaProblem on May 20, 2023, 09:42:04 PMpomona pectin
I'm going to get that! Thanks.
About the sugar to juice ratio. I sent my wife next door to learn how a 93-year-old makes jelly w/o pectin. The recipe was 1:1. Now, granted, they made a 2:2 batch, pints, and that can make a difference. I've never made a single-pint batch and got away from the 1:1 method years ago. Too finicky. Ripeness, moisture content, fruit density, wind direction. Unless you're making candy, pectin is the stuff to use.
Anyhow, the method was to let the mixture "cook down" until she said the hang time of drips from her spoon looked right, the boiling bubbles looked right, and the color looked right. My wife said she was constantly stirring and changing the heat based on what she saw in and heard from the pot. It skimmed over real quick, set up in less than an hour. She kept both jars! I think one is already eaten up. I got a spoonful. ;D It's good stuff.
Shifting gears. Have you made pumpkin candy? I haven't. I tried some at a farmers market once and loved that stuff. I've read about it, but I don't like to try that stuff without hearing things recipes don't tell you. There's always a trick hidden in making sweets.
From a food safety perspective:
50/50 sugar to fruit will reduce water activity when cooked to dissolve the sugar. Water activity for shelf stability must be < 0.85Aw. This can be tested with a water activity meter. The heating step is very important to destroy pathogenic bacteria and to destroy spoilage microorganisms and mold/yeasts.
pH is also a critical factor. Most fruits used for traditional jams naturally have pH levels well below 4.6 which is the cutoff point for control of Clostridium botulinum (proteolitic). 5.0 controls non-proteolytic Clostridium botulinum.
When pH levels are below 4.6 and Aw is above 0.85, you really need to understand pathogen, non-proteolytic Cbot spore destruction/inhibition in addition to spore destruction of Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens.
Sugars added to low pH fruits is a win-win for safety with temperatures at 212F for in excess of 20 minutes.
Also, fill to the ring on the mason jar with temperatures no lower than 180F. Boiling jars and lids in hot water is a plus.
Once filled and the lids are put on tight, you must invert the jar for 5 minutes to achieve a heat treatment to the cap and to set the plastisol seal which will hold the vacuum once the product cools.
When mixing coconut, bananas and other higher pH foods, you need to be sure that those higher acid foods have been acidified well below 4.6pH and/or the water activity has been dropped to below 0.85. Many times, a combination of both is required. Books provided by the Ball Canning company provide recipes that have been scientifically validated to ensure a safe shelf stable product. I am sure there are others out there. Many land grant universities have process authorities that can validate your recipes and/or tweak them for safety for a reasonable fee.
22 years of regulatory food safety sends chills down my spine when home processed shelf stable foods are not made with a complete understanding of the critical factors needed to uniformly produce safe product. I have been involved with too many illnesses and deaths over the years. Its a reflex for me. With that being said, when home processed shelf stable foods are made right, you can really enjoy high quality products that you can't buy anywhere else, all made at home.
If anyone has any questions, just let me know. I would be glad to help.