I love cooking, well maybe more experimenting with things I have never done or made before. After seeing some strawberries on sale I decided to make some jam. Having never tried it I thought I might as well give it a go. Sounds simple enough and after some quick searches, I found a pretty cool recipe that had my interest. LET'S GO!
The recipe for this had a little twist that had me curious about what it could taste like. Fresh grounded black pepper and balsamic vinegar, yep you read that right. Not the typical things you would normally think of while making jam.
Started by cleaning the strawberries and adding them to a large pot, the largest one I had, still think I needed a little bigger though. After they were all cleaned and dried I added sugar and a splash of fresh lemon juice then mixed it all together. Covered it and let it rest for about an hour. Amazing how much it changes during that hour.
To the stove on high heat until it started to boil. As soon as it starts to boil it creates quite a bit of foam and had to adjust the heat just enough to not make it boil over, what a mess that could have been (I remove the excess foam near the end). Stirring occasionally to make sure things stay even. Once things were getting nice and soft I had to mash the strawberries together but since I don't have a potato masher I decided to just use a normal whisk and stir constantly until there were no large chunks left. reduced the heat and kept stirring waiting for it to thicken. No idea why I like standing there stirring away, but it was a pretty calming process. Not to mention the sweet strawberry smell that filled my whole apartment.
Near the end when it was almost done I added two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and a healthy amount of black pepper.
I read online that you should test your jam before taking it off the heat and putting it in a jar. So to test you place a little plate in your freezer and once it is nice and cold drop a bit of jam on it and back into the freezer for another minute. Take it out and drag your finger through the jam. This will divide the jam and leave a clean streak on your plate. If the jam stays still and not flow back to cover the clean area then it is good to go. If it is still too runny and the jam flows back and covers the clean area then cook it some more. It tested it about 3 times until I had the desired consistency. Time to place my jam in my jar.
I sterilized my jar and made sure it was still nice and hot before pouring my super hot jam into it. I think it came out pretty good, the color and consistency were near perfect and the taste, OMG THE TASTE! I had to try some right away and it blew my mind. Tried some on toast and it tastes real sweet as soon as you bit into it and near the end, the pepper comes through just a little. Each bite was bliss and by the end of it, I was pretty proud!
Just look at that color!
So yeah, if you find yourself being extremely bored at home, cook a bit. When going on your grocery run, get some fruit or anything that you think could be fun to experiment with. There are tons of recipes online and most of them are pretty easy!
Lol can someone hand me a scone stat, please!!!!! I'd be taking that jam to town
Here ya go! Surprisingly not that many scone gifs =P
Holy shit, where do you have strawberries already? The jam looks superb.
Are you interested in cooking in general, as I'm trying to promote a community called Cook and bake, as people seem to be cooking and baking a lot. Especially now as we have the quarantine in most countries :)
If you're interested, this is a link on Peakd and this on hive.blog so you can subscribe if you're interested in the topic. If you join or not, I'm still jealous for your jam.
Strawberries are almost out of season again here in Korea, they are everywhere though! OOOH, I love me some good food posts. Will check it out for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Ah, with us the spring is just starting and strawberry season is approaching. Slowly, but it's still starting.
I'll promise to send strawberry photos on Hive when they are in season in Finland and you've eaten all your jam ;)
Oh boy! Homemade jams are to die for!
Never heard of adding pepper to it though...
Same here, that is why I had to try it. Now I am kind of thinking... what if I make it hotter? Won't be a jam anymore then, right? More like hot sauce.
Well, let's make hot sauce then, to the google machine!