After the failed marmalade attempt, I thought I need to try jam. I had some raspberries and blueberries available, so I thought I'd just try to put them together. I didn't have a recipe for that mix - so I just winged it.
I forgot to take a picture of the process, but here's the end result:
And here it is, in action:
It ended up being a bit too strong. I'm not sure what I did wrong - not enough sugar, or not the right flavors together, but it just wasn't all that great. I'm glad I only ended up with two jars of it! I guess I'm not quite experienced enough to go off recipe. But the consistency was really good, at least, so I got something right.
One thing that they let us taste, but didn't demonstrate, on the preserving course, was an old-fashioned drink called "Currant Shrub." It's like Sloe Gin or any other fruit flavored alcoholic drink. In this case, it's red currants and brandy. I liked the taste of it on the day, though I don't go in for those kinds of drinks normally. It tasted just like Christmas, and the longer it sits the better it is, so I thought I'd make some for this holiday season.
You start by getting the juice from the red currants:
Then you need to strain the juice out. I don't have a jelly bag stand, so I rigged one up using two potato mashers, and some other kitchen objects, including a jam jar filled with water, acting as a weight to press the red currant juice out:
Then you mix the juice with the alcohol, plus some lemon juice and nutmeg and let it sit.
Like this:
After a week or two (or three - as I accidentally did the second time I made it), you add sugar and raise its temperature to around 60 degrees Celsius. Then you strain it through a jelly bag and bottle it up. Then you let it sit for a few months. Hopefully it will be just about right by the time Christmas rolls around.
2 comments:
Whoa - that sounds potent and yummy!
I LOVE the juice draining contrivance - Rube Goldberg better watch out! Now I finally understand why you and Mom have so many cookbooks....
What happened with the marmalade? I think you mentioned it, but can't remember any problems?
Having lots of cook books does come in handy in lots of ways.
I am ashamed to admit that I think that it was actually the first time I had used that bottom cook book on the left hand side. I'm not proud of that. And no, that doesn't stop me from having a dozen more cook books on my Amazon wish list, either. I know, it's wrong.
The marmalade was too runny so I ended up disposing of it. I have since learned that you can actually take it out of jars and reboil again if you do a batch that doesn't set right (at least, that's what the instructors said).
Unfortunately, I found out about this about 6 or 7 months or more after I made the marmalade, so although I still had the jars at that point, I thought I had probably already passed the point of no return on that batch. It did pain me to throw it out since I still remember the tedious, painful process of de-pithing all the orange peels, but I knew I wasn't going to eat it. I've also since learned that it's actually not a huge deal to have a bit of pith in your marmalade, so hopefully it will be a little less soul-destroying the next time I try it.
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