Kitchen Jam

Image by campbelj45ca via Flickr

As I write this, it’s Sunday evening, December 13 – only 12 full days left until Christmas morning. If you celebrate Hanukkah, you’re already half-way through the holiday. If you celebrate Kwanzaa, you’ve got 13 full days left until the holiday begins on December 26. Bottom line, if you were planning to make homemade holiday gifts, the time to start was yesterday – or maybe last week.

Unless, of course, you’d like to make some jam – and that’s where Kitchen Jam can help.

Jam, you say? In the middle of December? There’s no fresh fruit – I don’t have time – it’s too hard to make jam – maybe I should just go buy presents. Now, don’t get me wrong – buying presents is great if you have the time and the cash. But we’re running out of time, sports fans, and cash at this time of year is always in shorter supply than demand.

If, like me, you struggle to find unique gifts for people who don’t really need much of anything, and if, like me, you’re on a budget (both of money and time), then this might be the season to channel your inner homebody and make this a homemade holiday. If you’re not usually a kitchen magician, an afternoon or an evening making homemade jam won’t turn you into Martha Stewart – but these simple, easy recipes *will* impress your family and friends!

In under an hour, you can prepare a simple freezer jam using bottled juice or frozen fruit that will be ready for gift-giving the next day! A home-canned or preserved jam (hot-water-bath canning) will take about two hours of prep work, including cleanup – and it will be ready to tie up with ribbons as soon as it’s cooled. Oh – and that gift-wrapping chore? If you’ve got a roll of ribbon and some name tags, the wrap will be a snap.

As for the budget – for under $3/jar (or less, maybe *much* less, depending on stores in your area) one batch of jam or jelly will produce 6-12 gifts that sparkle with your personal touch – gifts guaranteed to be different from anything else your giftees receive this year (unless you share this blog with everyone you know.) If you’re game to bring a little more personality and a lot less same-old-same-old to your 2009 holidays, try one of these jams. I promise, you’ll never think of holiday gifts the same way again.

And I promise you won’t need to pick up a department store full of specialty equipment. All you’ll need to bring some jam to your holiday are:

• 4-6 quart pot with a non-reactive interior cooking surface*
• glass measuring cup
• a long-handled stirring spoon
• measuring spoons
• a potato masher
• a ladle
• containers in which to store or can your jam (plastic freezer containers, 4 or 8 oz. glass canning jars with lids)

* Use stainless steel, enamel, enameled cast-iron, even non-stick surfaced pans. Avoid plain untreated aluminum; it’s reactive and can turn the taste and/or color of your jam(s).

To can your jams and jellies by the hot-water bath method, you’ll need a canning pot with a rack. Don’t have one? Don’t worry – an 8qt or larger pasta pot with a colander insert will work just fine.
Optional (nice to have, not critical):

• chopper-blender-processor to make quicker work of mashing up whole fruit
• wide-mouth, wide-bottomed funnel to keep things neat while filling containers
• jar lifter if you plan to hot-water-bath can your jams
• cooling rack to elevate the filled hot containers a bit to help them cool more quickly

Over the next week, I’ll be posting recipes for jams and jellies made from fall-season fresh fruit, frozen fruit and bottled juices – each full of bright holiday flavors. Most use packaged pectin, but a couple (pear butter, cranberry orange jam) have enough natural pectin to gel on their own. All are simple enough for even first-time jam makers, and special enough to present as gifts. Look for recipes for:

(roasted) APPLE-PUMPKIN BUTTER
APPLE CIDER JELLY
BANANAS FOSTER JAM
CHERRY-APPLE JAM
CRANBERRY ORANGE JAM
GRAPE JELLY
RED GRAPEFRUIT CRANBERRY JAM (lower sugar)
MOJITO JALAPENO JELLY
ORANGE JUICE JELLY (plus tangerine & pineapple variations)
PEACH FREEZER JAM (plus strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, blueberry & mango variations)
(crockpot) PEAR BUTTER
POMENGRANATE JELLY (lower sugar)

As a blog-warming gift from me to all of you, I’ll also be launching an e-cookbook, “The 12 Jams of Christmas” – featuring complete preserving instructions for each jam and jelly, both a handy reference and terrific present for any home cook on your gift list. The ebook won’t be ready for holiday giving this year – but these jams can be!

Are you ready to make yourself a personalized home-made holiday? Let’s jam!