strawberry preserves

When we used to work the counter at Clementine, I would have to wait until Christmas for a single jar of jam from Amanda, who was then still a part-time home-baker, and my personal cultured butter queen. With only slight embarrassment, I confess one particular jar of Davis Strawberry jam was so good that I'd sneak sips straight from them jar when we had run out of bread. Recently, after what seems like years of planning, Amanda and finally got together for a Sunday preserve tutorial.

Here are some of Amanda's notes:
Fruit: some of it should be on the under ripe side, for extra pectin and complexity. Wash it if it's covered in pesticide or dirt. Cut it into bite-sized pieces.

Taste them. If they're super tart, use more sugar. Fruit preserves are at least 1/4 sugar by volume. (That's 1 cup of sugar to four cups of fruit).

For every four cups of fruit, add a lemon. The seeds of that lemon should be added separately in a tea strainer or cheesecloth bag or something.

Boil it until it's syrupy.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. There should be enough water in the pot to fully submerge the jars.

When the preserves is syrupy it's ready to pack into jars. If it's foamy, go ahead and turn off the heat under it. Let the foam settle and skim it off before you proceed.

To sterilize the jars, drop them carefully into the boiling water. After ten minutes, use your handy-dandy jar lifter to get them out. [ed note: Amanda got a her jar lifter from Big Lots or Tuesday Morning or some such. If you don't have one, use tongs.] Next, boil the lids to the jars for exactly five minutes. More than that will damage the rubber seals, less won't necessarily be sterilizing enough.

It's easiest to sterilize the lids in a strainer of some sort, because picking up flat heavy objects that are at rest in a large pot of boiling water is one of those things that life is too short for.

Drain the jars. Fill them to within 1/4" of the top with jam. Wipe the rims off with a paper towel or something that you have dipped in boiling water (we must keep everything very, very clean at this point). Put the lids on, then screw down the rings. Boil for another ten minutes.

AND YOU'RE DONE!



Occasionally Amanda teaches classes on rustic, seasonal baking at FOOD, a neighborhood market/cafe in West LA, where she's the head baker.