Fancy pants jam

I'm supposed to be writing my last paper of the summer today, on preaching, which is perhaps why I've spent a large part of the day making jam. If you've been here a while, you might recall last year's chaotic blackberry jam. This year I scoured the town for a set of magnet stick thing, funnel and jar picky uppie thing. These transformed my jam-making this year into something a little less wall-decorating and more manageable. The nice thing about jam is that as long as your jar lids 'ping' you don't have to process the filled jars. (Normally when you can things you have to seal the jars then immerse them in boiling water for some time.) As long as you keep the jam in the fridge it will last for months. You also don't really need to mess about with pectin, provided you have the patience to wait longer for the jam to set. I don't even boil the jars to sterilize them, I just use the oven method and keep the lids in a small pan of boiling water out of the way.

Yesterday I made apricot jam and somewhere on the internet got the idea to add a little rosemary, which I happened to have as my friends had brought some round a week or so before. I just tried it because one of the jars didn't seal and it turned out great! I put less rosemary in than suggested and I certainly wouldn't want any more - I probably added about a tablespoon for 4 cups of apricots (plus maybe a cup and a half of sugar? Maybe two.

Today I made strawberry jam, and on advice from various blogs, added basil and lemon juice. In fact, I created quite the concoction, including a third of an apple because it seemed to refuse to set. Here's what I used:

2lb 4oz strawberries (because that was how much I had)
about 10oz (cup and a half) of sugar (basically just under 3 times as much fruit as sugar)
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp lime juice
about 1 tbsp basil (from my garden!)
a third of an apple, chopped finely.

I obediently macerated the strawberries overnight, and finished up the jam today. I brought the strawberries to a boil then chucked everything but the apple in. The apple was a late addition because I thought it would never set. Another time I'd try to be more patient, although it tastes fine with apple in. The citrus is quite strong, might tone that back another time, or add more sugar, but it's an interesting flavour and made eight little jars, seven of which (so far) have reassuringly pinged. I still have as many strawberries left, and I'm thinking either strawberry, mint and ginger, or just plain strawberry.

The one in the middle is plum jam I made last year. They're so colourful, I love it!