Jam & Jungletek – what it says on the tin really. Not like that old TV show ‘Jam and Jerusalem’ which seemed to have no relation to jam or in fact, to the holy city of Jerusalem in the slightest…
This post is about my jam making to beat-breaking jungletek:
Now, jam making is one of the 3 cookery things that phase me, it always seems to be a bit of an ordeal. Cue: various peelings strewn about the kitchen, hot globs of molten fruit covering every work surface and stickily gliding down the once-white cupboard doors… But I persevere to perfect my preserve making skills.
Todays’ endeavour was a Spiced Pear Chutney, using the bountiful harvest of my Grandmothers’ Commis and Forelle pear trees. I used a combination of two recipes, tailoring them to my hap-hazard practice and tweaking them to make up for my lack of jam sugar. Some fruits you can get away with using normal sugar, but pears are notoriously low in pectin and could do with a helping hand. My local shop didn’t have any jam sugar so I slung a few apples in which are apparently high in pectin and used a little less water than either recipe suggested.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t cook without music:
‘Fatty Fatty’ – Radium & Vandal
Tunes on – I set to work, covering the work surfaces and the floor in peelings and chopping out the cores of my foraged fruits. Radium & Vandals’ inferno of beats rather compliment the industrious task of preparing all the fruits for the melting pot, the fast paced track reflecting the increasingly frantic process and the anxiety as it bubbles furiously away…
‘Biddlely Dong Skeng’ – General Waste
Will it catch?
Not while you’re watching it. This is what gets me about jam / chutney making: you will be cooing over the bubbling pot, pandering to it’s every need for hours, and not a set in sight. The amount of setting tests I did was ridiculous, sticky saucers towering out of the sink… I go outside for one minute, ONE minute – and have to scurry back in to the unmistakable smell of burnt sugar- I think it’s ready!
After flapping around juggling the hot sterilised jars in ill fitting oven-gloves, the jam is jarred and is sitting serenely in a bath of hot water, upside down – sealing the pop seals on the lids.
‘Safe Ravers’ – The Brown Noise
Despite the foolish error of leaving the heat of the kitchen, I managed to save my chutney just in time, tipping it into another pan before the acrid burnt bottom had a chance to taint the rest of the batch.
The next day I opened a jar of ‘Spiced pear & Apple Chutney October 2014′ and was joined by a few brave souls to sample the chutney; we accompanied the tasting session with biscuits,cheese and low expectations…
…As the phoenix arose from the ashes, the sweet, nectarious chutney materialised atop a black pepper thin, snuggled next to a creamy goats cheese. The previous days’ mess forgotten – MIRACULOUSLY it turned out great!
‘Rebel MC – Get Ready “All Junglist” – Kosine & Dialect Remix
glowbey 