- Author: Jennifer Codron, UC Master Food Preserver
- Editor: Shannon A Klisch, Academic Coordinator II
- Editor: Maria E Murietta, Master Food Preserver Program Coordinator
It's that time of year again! The dominant variety of apricots, Blenheim, that have a short season here on the Central Coast, have arrived. I used to have a Royal apricot tree in my yard and made delicious jam every year. Unfortunately, it contracted a fungal disease and slowly lost its limbs one by one which ended my annual tradition of making jam.
Last year, I wanted to bring this jam making tradition back so now I purchase my Blenheim apricots from my local farmer's market. The farmers there have been growing apricots for years and they have some of the tastiest ones around.
First, gather your ingredients and canning supplies. This recipe makes about nine 8-ounce jars and you will need 8 cups chopped and pitted apricots, 4 tablespoons of lemon juice, and 6 cups granulated sugar. Make sure your cooking space is clean and wash your hands.
I decided on a simple no-pectin recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (2006) so the pure delicious flavor of the apricots could shine through.
I like to listen to music while I jam, mostly bluegrass, but any music will enhance your experience and help pass the long minutes of stirring the pot when you choose the long boil, no pectin method.
I washed and dried and chopped the apricots, removing any blemishes and getting rid of any damaged pieces. You want a mix of about ¾ ripe to ¼ under-ripe apricots since the latter contain more natural pectin to help the jam set. Prepare fruit in small batches, just enough for one recipe for best results. For my second batch, I chopped the apricots in smaller pieces and ended up with more fruit in my recipe.
In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, lemon juice and the apricots. I let this mixture sit for about a half hour as the fruit begins to release its juices and starts to form a syrup. This helps prevent sticking as you heat the mixture over medium heat.
Add 6 cups of granulated sugar.
Add 4 Tablespoons of lemon juice. The juice needs to be from a bottle purchased at the store. This is a guarantee that the juice will have the right pH, at least 4.5 percent acidity whereas freshly picked lemons can vary in their pH.
Add the 8 cups of chopped apricots. Although the recipe calls for peeling the apricots, I leave the skins on and end up with a smooth jam.
Stir the pot occasionally to help the sugar dissolve and keep the mixture from sticking. Once the mixture has broken down and begins to thicken you need to stir constantly as it boils. This is where your favorite music or a good podcast comes into play.
I decided to use the temperature test since it is the most accurate way to see if the gel stage of the jam has been reached (Ball Book, 2006, pg. 21). After cooking for an hour, the jam reached only 210 degrees, so I decided to try the sheet test with a spoon that had been in the freezer for several minutes. The jam came off the spoon in sheets, so I decided to ladle into the hot jars. The second batch of jam did reach 220 degrees after only about 45 minutes as I boiled this one a little harder. Interestingly, the first batch which was cooked longer turned a darker shade of orange while the second batch was brighter.
Spoon or sheet test: Dip a cool metal spoon into the boiling jam. Lift the spoon up and out of the steam so it starts to fall off the spoon. If the jam forms light and syrupy drips, keep boiling. If the jam comes off in one sheet, the jam is ready to place into hot jars.
Ladle the hot jam into half-pint jars leaving a ¼ inch headspace. Use a debubbler or chopstick to release any air bubbles that may have formed.
This jam is very sticky so make sure the rim is wiped clean with a damp paper towel before placing the lid on the jar.
Place the lids on the rims and screw on the bands just until fingertip tight.
Set filled jars onto a canning rack and submerge into a water bath canner with 2-3 inches of water covering the tops of the jars. Bring to a full rolling boil and process for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn off heat, remove the lid and let the jars stand in the canner for 5 minutes before removing the jars to a clean towel on your counter. Be sure not to tip the jars as you are removing them as the mixture could bubble under the lid and cause the lids not to seal properly.
Let the jars stand 24 hours before checking that they are sealed properly. Place any unsealed jars into the refrigerator immediately. Store jars in a cool dark location after removing the bands. By removing the bands, you will be able to notice if at any time during storage the lids become unsealed and thus not edible.
To remove water stains on lids before marking the type and date of jam, take a cloth dipped in vinegar and wipe the lid.
In the second batch I made, I placed one cinnamon stick to add a little flavor. You can also add a vanilla bean or the apricot kernels in a stainless-steel tea strainer to compliment the flavor of the apricots. You can safely add up to 1 teaspoon of flavoring or herb to a jam or jelly recipe.
Because the Blenheim apricot season is so short, making jam is a great way to savor this flavor year-round and your friends will be happy when you bring over a jar of this delicious fruit. Enjoy!
Apricot Jam Recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving copyright 2006, page 22.
- Author: Maureen Ladley, UC Master Food Preserver of Solano/Yolo Counties
If you only have time to read this much: pectin is vegan-friendly.
I was having lunch at an outdoor venue with a lovely vegetarian friend. When we got around to all things canning, I told her how excited I was to try a sugar-free jam recipe using a particular pectin. "I cannot eat jams with pectin. I'm vegetarian," she mentioned. I was shocked. Having a smartphone, I immediately looked up the pectin in question. It's 100% plant-based. I showed her the ingredients, and she was surprised. She thought pectin and gelatin were similar and not vegetarian- or vegan-friendly. If my lovely, smart vegetarian friend was confused by pectin, I suspected others are, too.
Pectin is a thread-like vegetable-based carbohydrate that, when cooked, creates a cross-bond to form a gel. We endorse no products in the UC Master Food Preserver program, so the pectin brand I'm about to reference is for information only.
The pectin I looked up was Pomona's Universal Pectin®. According to their website, it is 100% citrus pectin. The pectin is extracted from the dried peel of lemon, lime and orange after the fruit has been juiced and the oil has been pressed out of the peel. The product is vegan, gluten-free and GMO-free. This particular brand of pectin is set using calcium water; instructions are included in the package. With Sure-Jell Powdered Pectin® and Ball Powdered Pectin®, the ingredients are dextrose, citric acid (assists gel) and fruit pectin.
Commercially packaged pectin comes in liquid or powdered form. Each type has particular uses and cannot be substituted for each other. Recipes typically call out what type of pectin to use and how to use it. Here is an example of a jam using powdered pectin from the UC ANR (University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources) Recipe Library:
Strawberry Jam, using powdered pectin: https://ucanr.edu/sites/camasterfoodpreservers/files/334998.pdf
If Solano/Yolo is your local county, contact us online by following this link: https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=30140.
Happy canning!
For more information about the UC Master Food Preserver Program, including the Food Preservation Video Library, visit mfp.ucanr.edu.
If you have a mature persimmon tree, you know it produces more fruit than you can consume fresh. But the good news is that there are ways to preserve them. You can freeze them, dry them, or turn them into jam. But before we go into the details of preserving persimmons, let's quickly review the two major types of persimmons that exist.
Persimmons are generally categorized as astringent or non-astringent. Non-astringent persimmons, such as the Fuyu and Jiro, are oblate shaped and can be eaten crisp like an apple, or slightly soft. Astringent persimmons, like Hachiya, are larger and acorn shaped. They are highly acidic and bitter unless they are really ripe, to the point of being somewhat mushy.
The most common method of preserving astringent and non-astringent persimmons is to dry them. Dehydrating astringent persimmons also removes the astringency. To dry persimmons in an electric food dehydrator, select firm persimmons and wash them under running water, patting them dry with a paper towel. Remove the stems. You can peel them or leave them unpeeled. Slice them into a quarter of an inch to no more than half inch slices. Lay the slices single layer on the dehydrator tray and dehydrate. To test for dryness, cut a couple of pieces in half. You should not be able to squeeze any moisture out of them, and there should be no visible moisture. And if you fold the piece over, it should not stick to itself.
Astringent persimmons are also frequently dried whole Hoshigaki style, i.e. open air drying the whole persimmon. To dry Hachiya persimmons Hoshigaki style, harvest only orange, firm persimmons for this purpose, leaving about one and a half inches of the stem intact. Trim away the calyx (the green ruffled top,) being sure to leave the stem intact. Next, rinse the persimmon under running water, drying it with a paper towel. Peel away the skin. Tie a foot-long length of cotton string to the stem and hang it from the rafters or some other well-ventilated area for it to air dry. It can take one to two months to air dry. When dried, the persimmons should feel leathery but still pliable.
You can also freeze persimmons to use later in baked items. To freeze persimmons, puree the pulp. It is recommended to add 1/8 teaspoon of ascorbic acid to each quart of persimmon puree. Place the pulp in a canning jar or freezer container being sure to leave sufficient head space. (See https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/headspace.html if you're uncertain how much head space to leave.)
And if you do not mind the natural texture of ripe astringent persimmons, you can simply freeze the ripe pulp as is to consume later as a frozen treat.
Persimmons can also be made into jam. Although you can find a lot of persimmon jam recipes on the web, many of them are not from reputable sources and may not be safe. Only use jam recipes from trusted sources such as the National Center for Home Food Preservation, pectin companies, universities etc. If you are uncertain if a jam recipe is safe or not, contact your local UCCE Master Food Preserver Program for assistance. Two sample reputable persimmon jam recipes can be found here: www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/mcp-persimmon-freezer-jam-63386.aspx and www.pomonapectin.com/recipes/persimmon-jam/.
Sources/references: National Center for Home Food Preservation www.nchfp.uga.edu and “Persimmon Time.” (a handout), Author: Olive McCracken, Home Advisor, University of CA Cooperative Extension, Solano County.
For more information about the UC Master Food Preserver Program, including the Food Preservation Video Library, visit mfp.ucanr.edu.
- Author: Katherine Soule, Youth, Families, and Communities Advisor
- Editor: Dayna Ravalin, UCCE Master Food Preserver Program Coordinator
Photo credit: Katherine Soule
In the last few months, the UC Master Food Preserver Program in the County of San Luis Obispo has received a couple of donations to support our mission to teach research-based practices of safe home food preservation to the residents of San Luis Obispo County. In one instance, a local community organization donates several cases of wine as the COVID-19 pandemic meant they would not be able to use the wine at any events this year. Last week, we received quite a few pounds of figs that otherwise would have been treated as food waste. With these donations, we knew the perfect recipe to make: Rosemary, Fig, and Red Wine Jam a safe, home-based recipe from Ball®.
The first step was to sort and clean the figs. Figs that were spoiled were composted. The rest of the figs were washed, wiped with clean towels, and then destemmed. Fig skin is very thin, so I did not scrub them with a vegetable brush.
Since we had so many figs, I decided to make 4 batches of jam. The second step was to harvest and wash the whole rosemary leaves, after removing them from the stems. I brought two tablespoons of rosemary leaves and half a bottle of red wine to a simmer. The herbaceous and berry scents filled the kitchen with an invigorating fragrance, which I enjoyed while moving on to prepare the figs.
Photo credit: Katherine Soule
The recipe indicated that the figs needed to be finely chopped. I was surprised at how long it took to chop the figs for the first batch. Once I completed this first batch of jam, I also realized that I had chopped them larger than desired.
So for the next batch, I decided to use a food processor, making the chopping much faster and providing a more consistent result. After cutting the figs, I moved them into a large enameled pot on the stove, adding pectin, and bottled lemon juice, which I brought to a vigorous boil. The lemon juice is an important ingredient in this fig-based recipe to ensure that there is enough acid to make the product safe to consume after canning.
Photo credit: Katherine Soule
Then I measured the sugar. With this large volume of sugar, the jam would make a wonderful seasonal treat rather than as a daily complement to breakfast. While I brought the mixture back to a boil, I started to pull the canning jars out of the boiling water canner, so they would be hot when I added the jam.
Photo credit: Katherine Soule
Since this jam has so much sugar, the jars were very sticky after I filled them. I cleaned all the rims and the sides of the jars with a warm wet towel. Then, I added the lids and hand tightened the rings. To save energy and time, I used an atmospheric steam canner following the processing time in the recipe.
Photo credit: Katherine Soule
After pulling the jars out of the canner, I left them to set undisturbed for 24 hours. The next day, I took off the rings and checked the seals on all the jars. Two of the jars did not seal, so I cleaned the jar rims and replaced with new lids and rings. Then, I re-processed these two jars in the atmospheric steam canner for a second time. They still did not seal, so I stored them in the fridge.
These jams would make a lovely thank you gift or holiday present. The recipe suggests pairing the jam with blue cheese, which sounds delicious on homemade sourdough crackers. You can find this jam recipe on the Ball® website freshpreserving.com.
Many students are experienced food preservers, creating delicious jams and jellies for their family and friends. It's exciting to see the ah-ha moments when I explain and discuss the reasons behind the research-based preservation techniques UC Master Food Preservers teach. Just because grandma or mom did something and no one got sick, does not mean that the process is safe by today's standards.
The traditional method of preserving jams and jellies was to cook the product, put it in a sterile jar, and either pour melted paraffin wax on top or put a lid on then turn the jar upside down to force a seal. Each method has its own set of food safety concerns.
Using paraffin wax to create a barrier between the jam or jelly and the surrounding environment was fairly effective as long as the product was stored in a consistently cool place, such as a root cellar. Not many of us have the luxury of a root cellar. Unfortunately, if the storage temperature of the jar fluctuates, the wax contracts with cold temperature (letting in pathogens and – in my country house – ants) and then expands with warm temperatures to trap the undesirables in the product beneath the wax.
If there was mold under the wax, it was a common practice to scrape it off since it only appeared to be on the surface. We know better now. Molds don't just grow on the surface, they can create carcinogenic toxins (mycotoxins) that remain in the food, invisible to the human eye.
Another common canning practice was to sterilize the jars, fill almost to the top with hot jam or jelly, put the lids on, and turn the jars upside down to force out the air and create a vacuum seal. This is open kettle canning. This method made a more consistent barrier than wax, but there is still a common potential problem with the food inside the jar: there is no guarantee you destroyed all food borne pathogens and spoilage organisms.
When we boil jam and jelly in a cooking pot, we still don't reach a high enough temperature to destroy all spoilage and food poisoning organisms. Plus, the air is filled with floating microorganisms trapped in the jar when we add a lid. When we process a jar of jam or jelly in a boiling water or atmospheric steam canner, there's enough of an increase in the temperature within the jar to destroy the pathogens and enough of a pressure increase to force air out of the jar. When we remove the jars from the canner, the pressure equalizes and the vacuum seal forms over pathogen-free food.
Often people don't realize the purpose of adding (so much!) sugar to a jam and jelly isn't just to add sweetness. Sugar preserves the food and partners with the pectin to form the gel.
When I teach about the purpose of sugar in a jam or jelly, I have students (youth and adult) act out what happens in a jar of jam. Three volunteers at the front of the room represent water, sugar, and pathogens (the bad guy). Foodborne pathogens need water to grow, so if the pathogens have access to the food's water (the water and pathogen volunteers link arms), the pathogens do what they're supposed to do: grow mold, slime, fuzz – all that disgusting stuff you find growing in the containers shoved at the back of your fridge. We need to separate the water in food from the pathogens, so we bring in sugar. At a molecular level, the sugar molecules bind with the water molecules (the water volunteer now links arms with the sugar volunteer, leaving the pathogen volunteer off to the side). This bonding lowers the water activity of the food, making the water unavailable to the pathogen (private party by invitation only). The pathogen wants to join the food party but the sugar acts as a bodyguard, keeping the pathogen away from the food's water and preventing the pathogen from growing (the sugar volunteer blocks the pathogen volunteer from getting near the water volunteer). That's how sugar preserves the jam and jelly.
But what if you want to have a low sugar jam or jelly (aka fruit spread)? First, use a pectin and recipe designed for low-sugar to get a good gel. (Low-sugar pectin uses calcium instead of sugar to make the gel. Regular pectin uses sugar to make the gel, so if you just cut the amount of sugar, you'll make a delicious runny syrup.) Second, process the fruit spread in a boiling water or atmospheric steam canner to destroy the microorganisms. While the jar is sealed, nothing will grow. Unfortunately, once you open the jar, there isn't enough sugar to prevent microorganisms from growing (you have a tiny sugar bodyguard). Even stored in the refrigerator, mold forms within a couple of weeks and you need to toss the fruit spread. I always recommend canning low-sugar fruit spread in small 4-ounce jars to make it easy to finish using the product before it molds.
Knowing why current canning recommendations work is key to ensuring the jams and jellies we serve to our friends and family are safe to consume. UC Master Food Preservers rely on the National Center for Home Food Preservation for their information; you can, too!
For more information about the UC Master Food Preserver Program, including the Food Preservation Video Library, visit mfp.ucanr.edu.