Jammin' on a Sunday Afternoon

No, I haven’t joined a rock band! But I really like my new toy -  a jam and jelly maker by the Ball company. Just a few easy steps and jam is made! I did 2 batches yesterday afternoon, just a couple of hours from digging out the equipment to cleaning the kitchen!

This tabletop appliance looks similar to a large slow cooker, but has a heating element and a stirrer. There are only a few recipes with the purchase, and when I contacted the Ball Company about some others, they said nothing else had been tested to print. As I looked at the recipe booklet, it seemed the recipes were all similar, and if I used proportions of other recipes for the same quantity, maybe I could make my own variations. So from the Strawberry Jam recipe I made a batch of Strawberry/Rhubarb Jam, and a batch of Strawberry/Blackberry Jam. I’m anxious to try Jalapeno Strawberry Jam for the Texas son-in-law.

This is a simple procedure – it went so quickly I hardly had time to wash the jars before it was ready. First add the powdered pectin to the pan, then the crushed fruit. Turn on the timer and the stirrer, it beeps at 4 minutes to tell you to add the sugar and put the lid on. After a total of 21 minutes of heating and stirring, there’s your jam! Ready to go into jars. I like making jam in half-pint jars to use or give as gifts. Also, five half-pint jars will fit in my spaghetti pan for the water-bath processing. No need to get the big water-bath kettle out. It is important to use a large pot with a rack, as the jars should not set on the bottom of the pan.

The basic Strawberry Jam recipe is:

2 ⅔ cups crushed strawberries (I used frozen berries that had mostly thawed)

3 tablespoons Ball RealFruit Classic Pectin

½ teaspoon butter or margarine

3 ⅓ cups granulated sugar

            Prep berries (if using fresh, wash, drain and remove stems and hulls). Crush berries one layer at a time using a potato masher. Measure required quantity of crushed berries and remaining ingredients of the recipe. Set aside.

Sprinkle pectin evenly over bottom of Pot fitted with the stirrer. Add crushed strawberries evenly over pectin. Add butter/margarine to help reduce foaming.

Press ‘Jam’ button, then ‘enter’.  After 4 minutes (4 short beeps sound), add sugar gradually while stirrer continues running. Place glass lid on pot. At the end of cooking/stirring time, the appliance beeps again to signal that the jam cooking is complete. Then press ‘cancel’, unplug and remove lid.

The jam is ready to eat, or preserve. If you don’t want to preserve the product, jam can be kept in the refrigerator or frozen.