a feast of strawberries

[mizkit]

I was in town yesterday and saw a fruit vendor with 1-kilo flats of strawberries for €5 each, which I thought was an excellent deal. I bought two, came home with them, and went back out not much later to get (other things also, but) four more.

The young lady at the booth looked at me a bit askance when I came up and asked for four flats. I

Comments

[deborahblakehps]

Many of my jam making recipes still call for pectin, although I'm not sure how you'd measure the home made stuff. How on earth do you get this all done!

I have golden delicious apples and some kind of mystery apple that is pretty sour (which didn't matter for the first 12 years I lived here, because I only got a couple of apples a year, but this year for some reason it is suddenly covered). The golden delicious make fabulous applesauce!

[mizkit]

The measuring the homemade stuff is in fact part of the problem. It's apparently a much more hit-or-miss way of jam making, until you learn how to eyeball it, basically. And also from what I'm reading on the net it takes about 2x as long to boil the jam satisfactorily as storebought pectin so it may not be *worth* it...

[cgbookcat1]

If you are willing to do a slightly runny strawberry-rhubarb preserve, you may be able to leave extra pectin out all together. I have had good luck with that, and with using no added pectin in general when using fruits that already contain it. This allows me to use less sugar.

For the apples, do you have access to a dehydrator? I slice apples thinly, dunk them in lemony water, arrange on the rack, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Fill up all the racks, dry according to the directions, and store. It makes delicious dried apples. I also make spiced apple butter in a crock pot (applesauce with a lot of the water taken out) and eat it with peanut butter on toast.

[anthony_lion]

That sounds delicious. Do you remove the skin off of the apples, or leave it? (I have a dehydrator somewhere... )
Rhubarb contains a lot of starches and stuff, so it's a good 'filler' in jam.
Warning for those who haven't messed much with Rhubarb: Do not boil it in a metal casserole with a 'oxidized' look inside it. The acids in the rhubarb will dissolve the oxydation. Sure the pot will be gleaming afterwards, but you end up with some nasty stuff in the jam.

[cgbookcat1]

Yes, I leave the skins on to dehydrate, but I like the texture contrast. It's also much faster.

[martianmooncrab]

start making your own applejack... grin.

[coraline73]

Mmmm
Bramley apples are indeed good for cooking.
DO you have brambles in the garden? If you make bramble jelly you use some apple in it and that provides enough pectin to set - you needn't add extra.

[tersa]

*moves in and brings a chest freezer*