Quince jelly is good. Hard to find, easy to grow the threes though.

I like golden raisins or fine diced dried apricots in my Apple Pie Jam. I also shredded the apples in some and added 1 cup of homemade orange marmalade. The finished jars look beautiful. Another that I enjoy making and gets rave reviews is mixed elderberry, raspberry and currant. juice. I do take the seeds out of the elders and raspberries.

My current favorite is an orange juice jelly-- not a marmalade-- made with Pomona and honey so it isn't too sweet. Like a morning glass of OJ in jam form. Besides putting it on toast, waffles, and in yogurt, I add a dollop of it to a basic balsamic vinaigrette to good effect.

Here is a link that might be useful: Orange Sunshine Jelly

jay,

Rasperry chocolate

and, for later in the year,

Apple, Pear, Plum jam (from Ellie Topp's book), which I lable "October Jam" because I first made it one October when apples, pears, and plums were about all that was left at the farmer's market, and I went looking for what I could make with them and found this recipe --- it's become a real favourite!

I can post recipes if you like.

Zabby

In the memoir / cookbook, Gluten-Free Girl by Shauna Ahern, is a jam recipe that I'm itching to try. It has blackberries, cranberries, grapefruit and a vanilla bean in it. I'm not finding it on her website though to give you a link.

We had some fun with making a green tomato / lime jam, using green "Aunt Gertie's Gold" tomatoes, which have a distinct, sharp taste, sugar, and lime juice - my son loves it on PP&J.

Last fall, we also made a batch of jelly using wild plum, Welches Concord Grape frozen concentrate (not diluted) and Knudsons(sp) pure cranberry juice, sugar to take the edge off, and Pomona - tart, but thats a great combination of flavors.

I love the Ambrosial Jam made with cantalope, peaches, oranges, splenda and pomona's.

If you raise herbs and have Lemon Verbena, I posted a recipe for Lemon Verbena Jelly on this forum a couple of days ago. No lookers but my topic may have been misleading.

jude

Vanilla Fig Preserves!
Lavender Jelly (I'm posting the recipe on the Cooking Forum in a few minutes...).
Triple Berry (black, blue, raspberry).

Post what fruit you've got and I'll bet you get lots of specific recipes.

Deanna

Another vote for the raspberry chocolate. We did it last year for the first time and it is now our favorite. Peach-Plum Marmalade comes in a close second. ;)

Dave

I can't imagine Raspberry Chocolate jam but I love raspberry chocolate torte so how could it not be good. I just checked my Mes Comfitures cookbook (which I have not used yet). Would that be the recipe?

jude

This one gets my vote:

Blackberry Earl Grey Jam

10 oz. boiling water
4 Earl Grey tea bags
3 pounds blackberries
3 1/2 pounds granulated sugar (I might cut this back next time to just 3 pounds)
zest and juice of one large lemon
1/2 teaspoon butter

Steep the tea bags in the boiling water for five minutes. Squeeze the excess liquid out of the tea bags and discard. Set brewed tea aside while you prepare the fruit.

Pick over the blackberries. Rinse them quickly in cold water without soaking them. In a preserving pan, combine the blackberries, sugar, lemon zest and juice. Bring to a simmer. Pour into a ceramic bowl and stir in the tea. Cover the fruit with a sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, bring this preparation to a boil along with 1/2 teaspoon of butter, stirring gently. Continue cooking on high heat at a full, rolling boil for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Check the set on a cold plate (it's done when you push the jam and it wrinkles--mine took about 20 minutes). Put the jam into jars immediately, seal, and process for ten minutes in a boiling water bath.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lindsey's Lucious (my food blog)

Jude,
Yes, the Mes Confitures recipe is the one. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but it is wonderful!

I have a recipe for strawberry - rhubarb jam/jelly that I haven't made for several years that I'm thinking about making that uses fresh rhubarb and wild strawberry jello. As I recall it was pretty good and is a freezer recipe. It would be nice if it could be canned but I'd be willing to bet it couldn't since it uses jello. The down side of things frozen is if it's something you'd like to use as a gift (I'm thinking Christmas gifts).

jude

My favorite is still REadinglady's old fashioned pear preserves, just pears, lemon juice and sugar, macerated and then cooked to gel point. Oh my.....

Let's see, I also like Wizardnm's maple apple jam, the fig vanilla stuff, the chocolate raspberry, and Doris' Peach Jam for a Cold Morning with the orange peel and jalapeno.

Annie

Annie, the pear preserves sounds like a winner....I suppose the recipe is floating around somewhere as well as the one for Doris' Peach jam. DH prefers the old fashioned jellies and jams as do I. But, I like the herbal jellies and non-traditional also. What can I say, I like food but don't give me vanilla. It's okay if it doesn't have a strong vanilla taste.

jude

Search still isn't working and google doesn't bring it up. Does any one have a link to the choc-rasberry? I'm very curious.

Raspberry with Chocolate Jam

2 3/4 lbs (1.2 kg) raspberries, or 2 1/4 lbs (1 kg) net
3 1/2 cups (750g) sugar
Juice of one lemon
9 oz (250g) extra bittersweet chocolate (68% cocoa)

Pick over the raspberries. Omit rinsing them so as to keep their fragrance. Put the raspberries through a food mill (fine disk). In a preserving pan, mix the raspberry pulp with the sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes, stirring gently and skimming carefully. Add the chocolate, grated. Mix and then pour into a ceramic bowl. Cover with a sheet of parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.

Next day return the mixture to a boil. Continue cooking on high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring and skimming if needed. Return to a boil. Check the set. Put the jam into jars immediately and seal.

%he search function here is horrible when it DOES work, so Jude, here are Carol's Pear Preserves and Doris' Peach Preserves for a Cold Morning. I did cut the sugar down in the pear preserves successfully to half the amount of sugar, so I used 2 lbs of sugar to 4 lbs of pears. Any less and you won't get a gel while the pears are still intact. Be aware that cutting the sugar does result in a longer cooking time, so the slices of pear are getting more cooked and can fall apart.

I do have to admit, they are sweeter, clearer, absolutely perfect with the full amount of sugar, but I like the idea of a bit less sugar, even now that Dad's gone. Darn, why can't I have everything? (grin)

Old Fashioned Pear Preserves from Carol (Readinglady)

You can also make Pear Preserves if you want chunks of pear suspended in syrup. By weight use equal amounts of pears and sugar. You also need the juice and seeds of one lemon. I wouldn't go over about 4 pounds of fruit because it takes too long to cook larger amounts. This takes several days, but it's mainly waiting and the results are wonderful. Here's what you do:

Day 1: Peel, core and cut firm-ripe pears into chunks or slices. Leave pieces large enough to retain character in preserves. Place pears in acidified water (Fruit Fresh or Ascorbic Acid).

Rinse and drain pears. Place in large bowl and add sugar equal in weight to pears. Add juice of lemon and place pips (seeds) in small bag. It's messy but I also add any of the pulp that was reamed out. Add to bowl. Stir gently
to distribute syrup and refrigerate overnight. Throughout evening stir occasionally to distribute sugar. (I usually don't do this more than once.)

Day 2: Place macerated pears and sugar syrup with lemon seeds in bag in large pan. Bring to a boil and cook about 10 minutes, skimming foam.

Reduce temperature and continue to cook (about 20 minutes) until pears are translucent and candied. Turn off heat and leave pears and syrup overnight. (This can be room temperature.) Cover pan with a cloth, not a lid (to
prevent condensation).

Day 3: Using a slotted spoon lift pears from syrup and place in a strainer. Collect any additional syrup in a bowl beneath the strainer. (I drained syrup left in pan into a bowl and washed the pan because the syrup was
crystallized along the rim then I put the syrup back.) Bring syrup to a boil and cook to gel point stirring frequently. (Depending on how thick you want the syrup, this can be anywhere from 218-222.) You can also use the frozen plate test.

The advantage is you get to thicken the syrup just the way you like without cooking the delicate pears to the point of disintegration.

Return the pears to syrup and boil 1 minute to reheat them. Pull off heat and let sit for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. (This allows fruit to equalize with the syrup so it doesn't float to the top of the jar.)

Place preserves in sterilized jars and BWB 5 minutes or clean, hot jars and BWB 10 minutes.

Now, on the Peach Jam for Cold Mornings, I used a whole orange because what the heck do I do with half an orange, LOL, and I used ripe (red) jalapenos because I didn't have habs. I think the habaneros are perfect for this, though, because they have a "fruity" flavor that goes well with the peaches. This stuff is perfect for bagels with cream cheese.

ORANGE/PEACH/HABANERO JAM
(Jam for Cold Mornings)

3 lbs. ripe peaches, peeled and quartered
1/2 medium sized orange, quartered and seeded
2 habaneros, seeds and all
4 cups sugar
1/4tsp almond extract
3/4 cup honey

Combine peaches, sugar and honey in a dutch oven, stir well. Cover and let stand 45 minutes. In food processor chop oranges and habaneros until finally chopped, scraping down sides a couple of times. Place orange, habaneros and an equal amount of water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.

Bring peach mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium high and cook, uncovered, 15 minutes, stirring often. Add orange mixture. Bring to a boil, cook, uncovered 20 to 25 minutes or until a candy thermometer registers 221F, stirring often. Remove from heat, stir in almond extract. Skim off foam with metal spoon.

Quickly pour hot mixture into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace, wipe jar rims. Cover with lids and Process in boiling water bath 10 minutes.

Yield: 6 half pints

Happy Canning.

Annie

Chocolate raspberry threads

Thanks Annie. I always look forward to South Carolina peaches but they're not usually available (freestone ones) until mid summer. Don't you just love fresh fruit. Saw a recipe for strawberry rhubarb tarts that I want to try but as I have said before I'm not a baker, however I've tried several things lately that turned out pretty good and these sounded yummy.

jude

Annie and/or Carol (Reading Lady), I have a question. I have sweetened, frozen, cut up strawberries that have been in the freezer a couple of years. Could I make preserves out of them? I know I'd need to add more sugar and truth told I'm not experienced enough, just old, at making jams to improvise with confidence. My first inclination is to drain any juice into a pot and as I said, add sugar, but would I need to add lemon?, or something else, or just cook it down. I can see this is going nowhere because I don't have a clue of how much sugar to add. I know I'd add the berries back and I'd need to do the BWB thing.

Woe is me, I started too late in life. If you can make sense out of this and steer me in the right direction because I don't want to waste the berries as well as the extra sugar.

Thanks guys,

jude

jude you are so funny...I'm another later bloomer ..I did it when I was really young and then just got to busy...now I am old and feeble minded and I'm doing it again....Talking to my Mother one time when helping her, I said...."I love doing this"...her response was...sure you do but you don't have to do it, you just do it for fun....and I guess that's still true...I do it for the fun of doing it.

Ruthie, I have not bloomed yet....I only "budded" last summer and I kinda think it takes longer than that. I enjoy it also but I have a bunch of stuff left from laat year. I just knew my children and grandchildren would beat a path to my door, begging for the fruits of my labor. Didn't happen, but I did give all of them "something Mom/Nana had put up" for Christmas which they could scarcely refuse. Silly people. Annie's salsa was the most talked about of anything and I didn't make my Habanero Gold jelly until after Christmas but it was well received. I have it with cream cheese on a bagel often for breakfast. I want to try a number of new things but in a way I'm rather hesitant, but you know what they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Oh, one other thing, you don't know yet what old is.

Does the fine blade of the food mill remove the seeds from the raspberries or is this jam seedy?

The Villaware/Roma has an OPTIONAL smaller holed screen for removing seeds from raspberries. I reruns the waste through a second time, same with tomatoes.