kitchen adventures
Ahh…. small-batch lemon marmalade. I look forward to this every year! Wintertime, specifically during January and February, is grey and bleak around here, and often the weather is fierce. It’s also peak citrus season. Every year, I look for Meyer lemons, so I can make this delightful marmalade. Meyer lemons […]
I used to make jam in big, big batches. I’d start with 4 quarts of fruit, and end up with 8-10 jars of jam. You know what? I’m not cooking for a business or a passel of farm hands, so I have moved entirely to small batches. Not only are […]
This small-batch peach-oolong jam with subtle notes of a good oolong tea is excellent with toast or scones. I wanted to capture the taste of with a thicker texture. This one’s a winner! I use sugar to draw juice from the peaches, add tea, cook the resulting mixture, and then puree it all with an immersion […]
Cherries DO have enough pectin to set a jam, if you’re willing to chop the fruit finely. This smooth cherry jam starts with unpitted cherries to make the process even easier. Start by putting the cherries in a heavy pot, and crush them with a potato masher. Use a tall […]
In the late summer, I make seedless raspberry jam. It’s part of my calendar of the harvest, coming right after peach-oolong jam and before apple butter. I like to have the seedless version of raspberry jam in my pantry, even though it’s harder to make. It’s useful in a lot […]
It was Auguste Escoffier who devised the now-famous dessert, Pêche Melba, in the early 1900s. It consisted of fresh peeled peaches, slightly sugared, with raspberry purée, served over vanilla ice cream in a swan carved of ice. The dish has become a classic, though usually the icy swan bowl is […]
Small-batch strawberry jam goes together so quickly! Start with the berries: rinse them well, hull them, and cut them into quarters. Put them in a heavy-bottomed pot. (I used my favorite 4 qt pot, which was perfect for the task.) Add the sugar and lemon juice, then stir well, cover with a clean tea towel, and […]
I love berries of all kinds, and am lucky to live where lots of them grow. Recently I bought some freshly picked blueberries at a farm stand: they were delicious! Some went into muffins, some on cereal, some were just eaten as a snack. The rest, about a dry quart, […]
You don’t have to make a huge batch when you make jam. Take this example: in a small batch, Strawberry-Vanilla Butter uses only 1½ quarts of berries, and yields 3 half-pint jars (plus a bit extra for toast or snacking.) You may double the recipe, if you wish a larger batch: the […]
Recipes get passed around, and change as they go. Chocolate pear butter is a case in point: it is my own version of a splendid recipe from Marisa McClellan’s second book, Preserving by the Pint, which is itself inspired by a British book, Notes from the Jam Cupboard, by Mary Tregellas. I keep up […]
In the fall, as soon as I have made applesauce, I start thinking about making apple butter: thick, silky, and fragrant with spices. It’s an old-fashioned preserve, and the old-fashioned way to make it involves a big kettle and hours of stirring. I prefer a modern method, which still take time, […]
Make a small-batch ginger pear butter: this smooth pear preserve with a tang of ginger is excellent with toast or scones, would be perfect with gingerbread, and delightful with shards of chocolate in an autumn crostata. The only word that properly describes it is a ‘butter’ – it has the mouthfeel of apple butter, but the […]