I made my first batch of jam on Saturday! I figured that since I’ll be getting 25 POUNDS of rhubarb from the farmer’s market, it would be a good idea to get familiar with jam making when I only needed to process a small batch.
Lessons learned:
- Jam is sticky. And it splatters everywhere. Be prepared to clean your kitchen and yourself afterwards.
- Make sure your jars and boiling-water bath are ready to go as soon as the jam is done, so that the jam can go immediately into the jars and then be processed in the bath.
- The jam will go from not-quite-jam to ready and rather thick very quickly.
- If you want to have jam to share, put it in half-pint jars and make more than two pints. Two pints is not enough!
- Seriously, have the boiling-water bath rolling while the jam is cooking.
- Listening to jar lids pop is exciting!
Rhubarb-Blood Orange Jam (adapted from The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves)
2-1/2 lb of rhubarb stalks, cut into pieces about 3/8-inch square
1/2 c water
Grated zest of 1 blood orange
1/2 c blood orange juice (storebought is okay!)
3 c unrefined sugar
Start your boiling-water bath! You can use it to sterilize your jars while the jam is cooking, and then it will be ready to go as soon as the jam is ready.
Combine rhubarb, water, and zest in a large pot. Heat the pot over medium heat, cover, and simmer the contents for about 20 minutes, until the rhubarb is tender and breaking down. Stir periodically throughout the 20 minutes to ensure that nothing is sticking.
Remove the pot from the heat and add the juice and sugar. Put the pot back on the stove, and over medium heat, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Raise the heat to medium-high and boil the jam until it mounds in a chilled dish. (Read: When the jam starts to look, well, more like jam, put a small bowl in the freezer. After it’s in the freezer for a few minutes, take out the bowl and drop a small amount of jam into it. If it forms a little hill – and if, once you let it cool for a few minutes, it doesn’t run when you tip the bowl on its side – the jam is ready for the jars.)
Ladle the jam into pint or half-pint mason jars. Wipe the jar edges clean. Add lids and rings, tighten to finger-tight, and process the jars for ten minutes in a boiling-water bath.
9 Comments
Looks fabulous.
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Kat Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Thanks! I can’t stop eating it…
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Another jam recipe? Wowza! Great job! It looks so yummy and fresh. Wish I had some right now!
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Kat Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 8:09 pm
I’m kind of obsessed with this jam now; I made another batch this weekend. It’s super tasty!
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Hi Ms. Kat!,
Do you have any recipes for sugar free or low sugar jams? I’d love to start my own jam adventure!
This blog is beautiful! Congrats on getting it going!
XO,
Jackie
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Kat Reply:
June 11th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Hey!
I’ve actually been looking around for recipes that use honey instead of sugar, because jam often has crazy amounts of sugar. The catch is that sugar is part of what helps inhibit bacteria from growing, which is important for me, since I’m making larger batches and storing it. That being said, if you’re planning on doing small batches and keeping it in the fridge, less sugar will be okay. I spied this blog which has a low-sugar version using Pomona’s Universal Pectin (available at The Brooklyn Kitchen, and other places I’m sure). It seems that Pomona’s has recipes for low-sugar/no-sugar jams, so they’re probably worth checking out!
Hope that helps – and thank for the compliments.
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Next year. Rhubarb. This recipe. It looks and sounds absolutely wonderful. I have the book (Isn’t it great?) but hadn’t clued in to this combination yet.
And your blog’s a beauty. Glad to find you.
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Kat Reply:
June 29th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
This jam is AMAZING. I was flipping through all my books and nothing for rhubarb sounded quite like what I wanted…until this. And oh, I do love it. If you want to trade for a 1/2 pint jar, I’d be down.
And thanks! I found you via Kate (@hipgirls), and I love your blog and photos.
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Shae | Hitchhiking to Heaven Reply:
June 29th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Thanks, Kat — and yes, I would love to trade! Who knows, maybe you’ll win the tayberry giveaway. If not, and I make more (I’m hoping to pick some more berries tomorrow), I’ll have some of that. to exchange. If not, I’ve got other good stuff. Let’s be in touch.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kate Swoboda, kat kickit. kat kickit said: Finally – rhubarb-blood orange jam post is on the blog! http://ht.ly/1NnzI [...]
[...] Two of my amazing and wonderful friends were kind enough to come participate in Rhubarb Fest: chopping, bagging, freezing, and canning with me! We finished everything in two hours, including canning nine half-pints of rhubarb-blood orange jam. [...]
[...] think we pretty safely established last year that I love rhubarb. Given that, it should be no surprise that I was completely on board when my friend Lauren [...]
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