Make It Do

So... Apricots. Did you know the apricot is a native of China and has been cultivated for over 4,000 years? Today, the United States produces close to 90% of the world’s apricots, most being grown in California. Apricots are an excellent source of betacarotene (vitamin A) and also provide vitamin C, iron, potassium, and fiber.


I am of the opinion that the best thing to do with apricots is to make jam. And as far as jams go, apricot is one of the easiest. Right up there with strawberry. A couple of weeks ago my grandpa called and said he had some apricots if I wanted them. Um, yes please. Fast forward 38 half-pints later and I've got a few things to say about jam making.

The instructions that come in the pectin box are lame divided into two sections, laid out so as to accomodate many types of fruit and include both jam and jelly instructions. Translation: I messed it up. Every time. If you tend to get overwhelmed with too much information and resort to skimming instructions until you feel like you have the gist of it [like someone else I know] I suggest translating the recipe portion into a simplified form like this:

1. In a large sauce pan mix X cups pitted + chopped apricots with 1/X c lemon juice. Gradually stir in pectin*. Add up to 1/2 tsp butter to reduce foaming if desired. Over high heat bring mixture to full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Stir constantly.
2. After the fruit/lemon juice/pectin have reached full rolling boil stir in entire measure of sugar, stirring to dissolve. Return mixture to full, rolling boil. Boil hard X minute(s). Stirring constantly.
3. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Proceed with preserving instructions.

I'm not going to get into the preserving instruction. Basically it's hot jam into hot jars topped with hot lids + process for however long it tells you to depending on what you're preserving. If you would like more information + a video to get you started go here.

*A word about pectin. There are way too many different kinds. For this project I compared two:  Ball Original and MCP Premium. They are both 100% natural fruit pectin, both are in powder form, they call for the same amounts of fruit per batch, and they both make jam.

As far as differences go, one word pretty much sums it up. More. and not necessarily in a good way. The first thing I noticed was that although they call for the same amounts of fruit the MCP recipe calls for twice as much lemon juice and 1 c more sugar per recipe. Also, after adding the sugar the MCP boil time is 4 minutes vs. 1 minute for Ball. I always add the butter to reduce foam [+ I think it gives a little bit of flavor - though that might just be wishful thinking] the Ball recipe hardly foamed at all and I didn't feel the need to skim anything. The MCP recipe had loads of foam. I could have had an additional jar processed with what I skimmed in foam [ps. don't toss the foam! Even though there's too much air for it to preserve well, it tastes good spread on toast etc. so put it into a bowl or jar to put in the fridge].  The batches I made with MCP also set up way more than I like. Probably because of the longer cook time.

Recap:
MCP = more lemon juice, more sugar, more time, more foam, and more set. Ball won this contest. Anybody compared Ball to another brand? I'm curious.

My intent for this post is to show that anyone can make jam. And I don't think you really have to be uptight about it. I've made huge amounts [multiple batches all in the same night] and small amounts when I barely squeaked by with enough fruit and got 6 or 7 half pints out of it. I'm a winging it kind of girl and I fairly stink at following instructions. I've messed up more batches of jam than you can imagine. We always eat it and it always tastes good. If it seals properly it even keeps for a year or two. This time I insisted on mixing everything together before cooking. Every single batch. Even though I realized on the first batch that I wasn't supposed to. Hmm. They're fine. They're more than fine, they're yummy. A little too set up for my taste - I like my jam slightly runny - but they sure taste good.

So there you go. Make some jam. Do. It's incredibly empowering + satisfying to store up foods that you've prepared yourself. I love looking at my jars of jam. I smile every time.

ps. There are so many  things to be made + preserved using apricots. Bottle them, dry them, make fruit leather. My mother-in-law bottles the blended up apricots and calls it nectar. She mixes it with orange juice for breakfast. It's yummy!