Lady Marmalade

As mentioned before, I had been blueberry-picking with my parents the other weekend, and I had grandly announced I was planning to make jam out of some of the produce. A week later, that is, yesterday, I finally went about the work, and this is the accompanying post!

First things first, I bought Sweet Family Nordzucker Gelierzucker from Netto, basically because Penny didn't have any gelling sugar (jam sugar? Preserving sugar? I have no idea what you guys call it). Tough love, Penny people, even though I want to support you in your current financial struggle. But if you don't have my wares, I can't show you love. Alright, specifically I got two 500g packs, one for blueberries aforementioned, and one for my Mom who wants to make strawberry jam. The recommended mixing ratio on this package is 2:1, which means for one 500g pack of sugar, I require 1kg of fruits - easily doable, considering we collected more than 2kg in about one and half hours of toil and trouble in the fields (I have the scars to prove it!)

The instructions were on the packaging itself, but in German, so here's the translation (with personal amendments in italics).

1. Wash fruits, dry them and extract anything but the fruit flesh and skin.

  

2. Weigh out 500g of fruits and dice/puree them.

Before

After

 3. Mix fruits with 250g of sugar according to 2:1 ratio.

Gotta love precision!

  4. Pour mix into a large pot.

  5. Add one packet of vanilla sugar (though on second thoughts, half a packet would do) 

6. Heat it (take care to not let it boil over). Stir till it cooks.

7. Let it cook while it bubbles for 4 minutes.

Shakespeare, anybody?

8. Test jam by putting it on a plate from out of the fridge (yeah. Might have wanted to mention that before) - if it does not harden, cook for longer (do not exceed maximum cooking time of 8 minutes) 

9. When it's done, pour jam into prepared jars and screw on lids (probably ought to have told you to prepare those jars earlier too, huh?).

Oooh, which to choose, which to choose? Maybe the one that fits?

Tilt 'em a bit, to AVOID those jam drips down the outside. Might I remind you, this gooey delicious liquid is HOT?

Not part of the instructions, yet the best part of the clean-up: lickin' up the goodies!

Protip from a German ladies magazine: Turn the jars upside down for 10 minutes, to help create a vacuum.

Finishin this report from the beautiful urban landscape of Opposite Town.

Now, because I love mixing things up, and I remembered how this one time my Mom and I cooked up a batch with strawberries and a distinct vanilla flavour, I insisted that I add vanilla sugar to the mix - it's not part of the original recipe, as you can tell from the italics. Also note, don't replace any amount of gelling sugar with vanilla sugar - this is chemistry at work, and I'm not sure about the success of the reaction if you decrease one of the agents (you WILL have reactant left over is what chemistry class taught me) - instead add more sugar. Good for people with a sweet tooth! I can't really say how they'll turn out, but I will give you an update on the taste as soon as we've cracked open the first jar again.