Kitchen Jam

The North Carolina State Fair finishes its October 15-25 2009 run in Raleigh, North Carolina with the following jam-making and preserving results from the official state fair website.

The fair features over 200 jam, preserves, marmalade, canning and junior competitor canning and preserving categories.

http://www.ncstatefair.org/2009/General/index.htm

Results appear here. I would love to include them all for a shout-out, but there are forty-four PAGES of results in mroe categories than I can count. To see the results in a spreadsheet, which is somewhat easier to download, download the results from the website.

Congratulations to all who entered, and to those who came home with a placement or category winning ribbon.

The 2010 North Carolina State Fair will be held in Raleigh form October 14 – 24, 2010.

In central NY, pears are a transitional fruit – hardy enough to grow in home gardens on special cultivars, but with fruits too fragile to ‘hold’ in cold cellars like apples. They come into the market in October, but are soon replaced by apples, and then citrus and imported melons.

Last week, after a few days basking in baskets on my counter, several pounds of pears filled my condo with their delicate ripening. After a summer of enriching peach, apricot and strawberry jams with balsamic vinegar, chipotle peppers and sweet spices, I wanted the delicacy of aromatic pear jam, recipes that would use pears without enhancements. This Simply Recipes Pear Butter – similar to my own in all but the star anise and nutmeg – is on my list to try with the dark-ripened fruit that is the last of the pear harvest, along with my Pear-Orange Honey. But for my first batch of 2009 pears, I wanted a simpler pear recipe, something slow-cooked without pectin – just enough sugar, a splash of citrus or vanilla to brighten the jam – but all pears, straight up.

On Recipeza’ar, I found #147884 from “dividend” – Pear Vanilla Jam. I reduced the sugar, used all Bartlett pears instead of a mix of Bosc and Asian pears, and used a bit of fresh lemon zest instead of the original recipe’s ground nutmeg – because I just don’t like nutmeg in pear jam! From an old recipe for Spiced Pear Jam, I removed the spices and substituted brown sugar for half of the orginal amount of sugar, improvising on a recipe for Butterscotch Peach Jam. Each of these recipes makes about 5 cups of jam.

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Pear Vanilla Jam
3 lbs fresh pears (about 6 pears, to create about 3 cups of puree)
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1/4 cup lemon juice, divided
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• Peel, core and quarter the pears. Toss the quartered pears with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to prevent the fruit from darkening.
• Coarsely chop the pears in a food processor or chopper, and measure them to ensure that you have 3 cups chopped fruit. Add the pears, sugar, grated ginger and three tablespoons of lemon juice to a large pot, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
• Grate a couple pinches of fresh nutmeg over the sugar.
• Simmer about 40 minutes, or until the jam reaches the jellying point (220 deg. F.) Stir frequently to prevent scorching.
• Remove the fruit mixture from the heat, and stir in the vanilla extract. Pass the fruit through a food mill if you would like a smooth jam.
• Spoon into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Wipe the jar rims and adjust the lids.
• Process in boiling water for 10 minutes.

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Pear Jam

4 cups pear puree (about 3 lbs. whole pears, peeled, cored, put through a food mill)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

• In a heavy saucepan, heat all of the ingredients to boiling, stirring constantly until the boiling can’t be stirred down.
• Lower the heat and simmer, stirring frequently, for 1 hour or until thickened to a jelly consistency.
• Skim off foam with a metal spoon.
• Pour immediately into hot sterilized jars, filling to about 1/4 inch from the top.
• Remove air bubbles and wipe jar rims. Cover the jars with lids and bands, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

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‘Net searches turn up the most amazing things.

Yesterday, searching for a more refined method for drying my overabundant herb harvest, I wandered into CanningUSA — a site which offers recipes, how-to videos and podcasts, and lots of very specific canning information. No longer do novice canners need to plow through tables of canning instructions; if you learn better by watching, then the videos of various canning and preserving processes are made just for you!

Need some visuals that explain how to make and can Jam and Infused Fruit?

Need an explanation of the differences between raw, hot and cold pack canning methods?

Hoping to put up some of the apples or pears filling your local farmer’s market?

If you’re looking for a visual guide to canning and preserving, as well as some interesting new improvisations on familiar preserving recipes, you might want to drop into the CanningUSA site, and investigate their online help section.

It’s finally MUSTARD! After two patient days (patience isn’t always my strong suit), it was finally time to take the great mustard experiment to the next level.

I’d been soaking a combination of dark and white mustard seeds in red wine (a chardonnay and merlot blend), red wine & balsamic vinegars for two days. With the soaking done, I improvised the next steps on a mustard recipe which came originally from Martha Stewart.

Stewart’s recipe uses all red wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon of ground marjoram. Since I’d just brought in my herb harvest, I substituted 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh thyme leaves. Stewart’s mustard is designed to be refrigerator mustard, but since this recipe is high in vinegar, I used a cold-pack canning method on two of my jars. First tastes were very sharp; I’m looking forward to tasting daily to see how it mellows.

RED-WINE MUSTARD

• 1/4 cup yellow mustard seeds
• 1/2 cup brown mustard seeds
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 3/4 cup red-wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

In my tiny 7 x 10 ft. kitchen, I can only manage a couple simultaneous projects. Two days ago I started the process for homemade mustard with an easy recipe. However, the first step is ‘Soak the mustard seed in the alcohol’ – I’ve chosen a red wine blend of chardonnay and merlot and a half-and-half mixture of white and black mustard seeds. While my mustard seeds are becoming all that they can be, I’m searching out pear recipes to try, something that will be a counterpoint and complement to the pear honey recipe I make each year. I was happily amassing a list of promising pear recipes when I stumbled into savory jam territory.

My explorations took me to this tweet about bacon jam from @ChefRobinL, one of the current season of Top Chef contestants. Bacon, the food of the gods. In a jam. Oh my!

Those of you who’ve watched this season of Top Chef will remember that Kevin made a candied bacon jam garnish for his escargot in episode four, which earned very high marks. But Robin’s tweet pointed me to Skillet Street Food – a mobile ‘joint’ which is open in various locations in Seattle. Skillet makes and sells 8 oz. jars of bacon jam and ships them around the country. Bacon, onions, spices all cooked down low and slow for six hours or so and then jarred. Oh. My. God. At $17/jar, it’s a little spendy – but my mouth is watering just from that bare-bones description. I’m still wondering how they managed to get all that bacon-y goodness into a jar. You can also follow @skilletbaconjam on Twitter.

Bacon jam is the kind of kitchen improv that makes me want to stay up cooking all night. Or at the very least, thaw out some bacon and put some of those red onions on my counter to a higher purpose. Kevin’s candied bacon jam is also a long and slow cooking recipe, something that could probably go all night in the crockpot and be perfect in the morning. So if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to play for some time while my mustard seeds marinate. I think I’ll julienne some red onions – and thaw out some bacon!

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