I made thirty-five pints of jam yesterday, in seven batches. It was an eleven-hour marathon in front of the stove, but it was well worth it – the jams are excellent!
Here they are:
From top left to bottom right, they are:
- Aprium-honey jam (aprium = apricot/plum cross, very tasty) – 3 pints
- Blueberry jam with a hint of cinnamon – 6 pints
- Bergamot marmalade – 12 pints
- Blueberry jam with balsamic vinegar – 7 pints
- Aprium with almond extract and orange blossom water – 3 pints
- Strawberry blood orange marmalade – 4 pints
I also had about three or four pints of leftovers – not quite enough to fit into a pint jar for canning. Those will be used as tasters and as ingredients for a test run of chocolates for my new chocolate tempering machine.
“Wait,” you say. “Didn’t you already do a test run of chocolates on that machine?”
Well, yes I did. Then I saw an ad on Craigslist for another one, extremely cheap, and decided to upgrade my second machine, too. (Yes, I have two chocolate tempering machines. I really should open a business!) So now I have two Chocovision Revolation X3210 machines, and am selling off my ACMC chocolate tempering machines. And, of course, I have to do an inaugural run on the second machine, to make sure it works before the big run starts in October.
The jams, by the way, are wonderful. I did burn the aprium with almond and orange blossom water slightly, so there is a distinct caramel flavor, but I don’t think that’s unpleasant. Put it in chocolate and it will be wonderful, I think. The bergamot marmalade I’ve made before, and loved it so much that I made a double batch this time. The strawberry blood orange is a repeat batch as well – I liked the flavor and wanted to use it in chocolates, but didn’t have quite enough. Now I do! The aprium honey jam is delicious – it’s a variant of the apricot-honey jam that I love, and which goes into my apricot-white chocolate truffles in the fall.
And, finally, the blueberry jam. I love blueberries – one of my favorite fruits. Both flavors came out excellent – the balsamic vinegar flavor isn’t pronounced, but it enhances the fruitiness of the blueberry. The “plain” version with a hint of cinnamon is fantastic as well. I look forward to trying them out with chocolates, though blueberry chocolate is a challenging combination. I’m thinking blueberry fruit jelly on bottom, and lemon white chocolate ganache on top. That sounds delicious to me!
All this made the kitchen quite hot, of course. And we don’t have air conditioning in the kitchen. So it’s a good thing that Mike and I installed a screen door on the front door recently, which greatly improved the air circulation. The cats love it, too – it’s a big window to the outdoors, and they spend a lot of their time sitting there, watching the birds. Cat TV, complete with intriguing smells!
Bernadette says
So please open your business! Put me down for a pint of each jam flavor!
Claude Lockhart Clark says
Those jars of jams look nice. Too bad I can’t have some