Sneak Peek Revealed!
Just as we were tiring of all the spinach and other various greens in the CSA box, we got a gem of a surprise - 3 cups of rhubarb! It was already cut up and stuffed into a sandwich sized ziploc so I would have never guessed it was 3 cups worth. Which meant I eliminated most of my usual rhubarb recipes I enjoy like an apple rhubarb crisp. I was also pretty sure grandma’s rhubarb dessert that is topped with meringue required more than what we had, plus I couldn’t readily put my hands on it to check. I was also convinced it was not enough for a batch of rhubarb liqueur that so many of our friends enjoy. Though I am hoping to still source enough rhubarb to make a good size batch of that this year.
So we bought some organic strawberries (we got none again this year from our strawberry bed and I’m thoroughly perplexed) and I made some strawberry rhubarb jam. Because I hadn’t measured out the rhubarb yet we had kind of figured we’d have a small batch and wouldn’t can the jam but instead just refrigerate and use promptly. But, I quickly discovered with the strawberries we had enough for a full recipe which then seemed worth canning. Fortunately, this was just before the heatwave struck so hot water canning for 20 minutes (thanks to our altitude) wasn’t as horrible as it could have been.
I did a 50/50 mix of strawberry and rhubarb - 3 cups each and I stepped down the sugar by 1 cup from the recipe given in the Ball Blue Book of Canning. I like a fairly strong rhubarb flavor and prefer my jams to be a little less sweet. I have struggled in the past with the low and no-sugar pectins so I stuck with the regular; otherwise I would have reduced the sugar a bit more. I still got a good set with the regular pectin and my sugar reduction so it all worked out.
I am wondering what can be done to keep the fruit evenly distributed throughout the jar. If you look closely you can see there is clear jelly at the bottom of the jars and all the fruit at the top. I believe I had read somewhere something about turning the jars upside down at some point in the process, though I’ve also heard that compromises the seal. Do any of you have some wisdom you can share?
I also got a lot of foaming. I noticed that the pectin instructions suggested adding a 1/2 tsp of butter to reduce that. I think I will have to give that a try next time. Not being ones to waste anything, and because the canning took longer than originally anticipated and we were hungry and anxious to get a taste, we spread the skimmed foam onto a couple slices of homemade bread Drew had baked. There is just something extra special about eating 100% homemade, especially when both of us contributed.
Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
Ingredients
- 3 c Strawberries, washed and quartered
- 3 C Rhubarb, washed and cut into 1/2 pieces
- 1/4 C Lemon Juice
- 4 1/2 C Sugar, divided
- 1 Box Pectin
Instructions
1. Using a potato masher, mash the strawberries in 1/2 C of the sugar. Add strawberries, rhubarb, pectin and lemon juice to a large sauce pan on medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
2. Add remaining 4 C of sugar and stir. Bring back to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly and boil for 1 minute.
3. Fill sterilized and warm jars, leaving 1/8″ head room. Wipe tops and threads of jar and close with a two-piece lid as directed. Process in a slow boil hot water bath for length of time indicated for your altitude remove from canner and place on towel to cool and set for a full 24 hours before moving.
You can use it as you would any jam and have on toast or scones or crumpets etc. You’ll notice I say the recipes makes six jars and I only photographed 5. That wasn’t just because odd numbers tend to look better. It is because that very same day we used a jar of it! I’ll share that recipe that used the jam soon. It is a favorite around these parts and a specialty of Drew’s. In fact, we hadn’t had it in a long time, but I started a monster and we made that recipe again this week but used a store bought fig ginger jam that we had in the pantry.
