Friday, August 31, 2007

Can This - Part 2 (photos to come)

Phillips Farm has been offloading their raspberries recently for truly remarkable prices (5 1/2 pints for 10 dollars?!?), and I knew something had to be done with this bounty. Raspberries are reliable freezers and both of my freezers at home now have containers full of them (for those lonely January nights when even the apples are now mealy), but 5 of the half-pints recently acquired have done their duty and become jam. Specifically, seeded red raspberry jam infused with fresh rosemary.

After pulping the raspberries slightly I heated them to just below boiling at which point I dropped about three stems of tied up rosemary, covered the pot and let the steeping commence. In retrospect I should have steeped longer, but I'm impatient like that. The final product has more of a hint of rosemary as opposed to an undercurrent.

I've never made jams before, so I'm still working out the right amount of pectin. My batch of strawberry had the right consistency, but I used granulated sugar which clumped in places. For the raspberry I used too much pectin, causing the jam to be a little more like Jello, than jam, but superfine sugar, so no clumps.

I also olive oil packed my delicious maroon peppers, duly roasted. If I can keep a certain someone's hands from these savory creations, our winter might not be so potato and turnip heavy!

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