Food for Thought: Strawberry Jam

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Strawberry Jam

Homemade strawberry jam is incredibly delicious, sort-of fun and definitely satisfying, to make. It's easier than you think. All you need is lots of fresh strawberries (washed and hulled), sugar and pectin (Certo). Oh, and you need a large pot and some sterilized canning jars. I recommend going to 'Canadian Tire' ( or whatever your local hardware store happens to be) for all your canning needs.

BTW, detailed instructions for making jams and jellies of all sorts are contained on an insert in the Certo box, but this is how I made mine.

Ingredients:

- 8 cups of mashed fresh berries and juice
- 14 cups of white granulated sugar (yes, that's 14 cups)
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 packages of liquid Certo

Instructions:

Wash and hull the strawberries. Cut the large berries in halve or thirds then mash them before measuring. A potato masher works well for this purpose.

Wash your canning jars and lids (which consist of 2 parts...a flat metal disc and ring). Rinse the jars and lids well and then 'sterilize' them. I place the cleaned and rinsed jars in a 350 degree F. oven to dry. Whereas I place the lids in a pot of boiling water for several minutes and leave them in the hot water until I need them to seal a jar.

Measure the required amount of mashed berries, including their juices, into a very large pot. Add the sugar and lemon juice to the berries and stir the lot together over a medium heat, then increase the heat to attain a rolling boil.

Prior to rolling boil.

This is a rolling boil...when the jam threatens to take over your kitchen.

Stir constantly. You will know that you have reached a rolling boil when the berry/sugar mixture almost doubles in size. Boil for one minute and then remove the pot from the heat and stir in the Certo.

Continue to stir the jam for 5 minutes. You may wish to remove (by skimming with a large spoon) some of the foam from the top of the jam before placing the jam in jars.

Place the hot jam into your hot jars leaving about a 1/2 inch (1 cm)of space at the top of each jar. Dry the lids and seal the jam jars tightly. Then leave the jam alone as you wait for the popping sound that indicates the jars are properly sealed. (As the jam cools and a vacuum is created within the jar, the metal lid is drawn into the vacuum and pops). If you don't hear a pop or see a drawn-in lid on a particular jar, it's probably best to store that jar in the fridge.

'To Cut the Mustard'

Meaning: To succeed; to come up to expectations.

Origin: Why cutting mustard was chosen as an example of high quality is unclear. Some possibilities allude to the literal difficulty of cutting mustard;for example: - Mustard seed, which is hard to cut with a knife on account of being small and shiny. - Mustard plants, which are tough and stringy and grow densely. - Culinary mustard, which is cut (diluted) and made more palatable by the addition of vinegar. - Dried mustard paste, which was reputedly used to coat meat and then dried to form a crust.

The love of olive oil...

I finally figured it out...why I love olive oil so much. It was the television programming I was exposed to as a child. See the following description, from the online Encylclopedia Britanica, of a character I admired. I lusted after the large boxes of chocolates she would consume in one sitting.

Tall, gangly, big-footed Olive Oyl, whose black hair was almost always tied back in a bun, first co-starred with her brother, Castor Oyl, in 1919 in the newspaper comic strip Thimble Theatre. For the strip’s first 10 years, she was the girlfriend of Castor’s layabout pal, Ham Gravy, and her jealousy over his wandering eye fueled many comedic episodes. However, soon after the introduction of Popeye in 1929, Ham was written out of the strip as Olive found true love with the salty sailor. In this coupling, she was the more fickle character, as from time to time she became drawn to suitors with more education and refinement than the scrappy, wisecracking Popeye, though he always won her back. Popeye rescued Olive Oyl hundreds of times from the nefarious bully Bluto.

A Funky Review of a Funky Cookbook by a Funky Girl

“Bite me speaks to more than your stomach,” reads an excerpt on one of the first pages of the newly released cookbook, Bite me, by sassy sisters Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat. From the tongue in cheek, retro photographs that grace many of the pages to the aptly chosen, often perfectly crude quotations; Bite me is a cookbook that also speaks to your sense of humour and playfulness.
The book is decidedly un-pretentious, which is exactly what the sisters had in mind when creating the book, and exactly what appeals to me as a twenty something with not much experience in the kitchen. At the book’s launch on October 6th at an Indigo location in Toronto, Julie was the first to boast that many of the props in the self-published book came from the dollar store. The price- perfect. The look- genius. The props convey just the right amount of kitsch and comedy.
Heather Reisman, CEO of Indigo and famous as Heather of ‘Heather’s Picks’ obviously saw the same genius in these first time authors. The book is now the first cookbook to ever be chosen as a ‘Heather’s Pick’ at Chapters and Indigo stores nationwide.
I personally know Julie Albert, as I tutor her adorable, charming son Benjy, here in Toronto, Ontario. Julie is most often seen looking flawless, but approachable- laid back in jeans or yoga pants, shuffling her kids from one activity to another. She is exactly the involved Mom who wants delicious, easy, home cooking with a twist, to feed to her family. That was the goal for the sisters- no mushroom foam, no truffle scented this or that. Just fun, easy variations on your favourites- using simple ingredients with a dash of wit, and some of Lisa and Julie’s own kitchen secrets. Oh- and a man with his head stuffed down a woman’s shirt. You have to buy the book to take a look at that last one.
I am buying the book for all the cooks in my family this Christmas. Even for a cook with many books, this one is a standout- almost more coffee table material than shelved with other cookery bibles.
If you need a giggle- go buy it. If you need a recipe for pecan crusted lime chicken- buy it. To the self-professedly “not so sweet, tiny-bit salty” sisters- great job. I forkin’ love it.

Jessie Bass-West

Link to Bite me http://www.bitemecookbook.com/

Pages

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Strawberry Jam