Experiments in Food Preservation, Part 2: Raspberry-Jalapeno Jam

This autumn the weather has been fairly mild, meaning that a number of harvests have held out longer than usual for Kansas City. I only just pulled up my jalapeno bushes last week, and they showed no obvious signs of being finished for the season. While chili peppers are typically at their peak in August, I got my most spectacular harvests in September and October and was stuck with about 2 pounds worth of the little buggers. Normally I like to make a few batches of salsa, but this year's harvest of tomatoes wasn't that great and October isn't exactly the tomato peak at market. Another great preservation technique for chili peppers is pickling, which I find just as flavorful and useful for salsas and other Mexican dishes (even Asian, if you're so inclined). But there's only so many jars of pickled peppers you can eat in a year and only so many you can give as gifts. Eventually it's time to try new things.

This year I decided to experiment with jalapeno jelly. Last year I followed a recipe from Preserving the Harvest, which I found far too sweet when paired with the usual cream cheese. I was hoping for something more like the perfectly balanced mango-jalapeno jam I bought a couple of years ago at the City Market. Walking through the garden one day and plucking some ripe raspberries from the vine, I glanced back at the jalapeno bushes and thought of that blend of sweet and spicy and wondered if maybe this combination was worth a try. And thus, I came up with the following recipe:

Raspberry-Jalapeno Jam

1/3 cup chopped jalapenos
1/3 cup white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup mashed raspberries
1 teaspoon calcium water (included in box of Pomona pectin)
1/4 cup sugar or honey
1/2 teaspoon Pomona Universal Pectin

1. Mix jalapenos and vinegar in saucepan. Bring to a boil; cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

2. Stir in mashed raspberries and calcium water. In a separate bowl, stir together sugar/honey and pectin.

3. Heat vinegar mixture to boiling and add pectin/sugar mixture. Stir vigorously 1-2 minute to dissolve pectin, then bring mixture back to a boil and remove from heat.

4. Fill jars to 1/4" from top and seal. Store in fridge up to 1 month or process for 10 minutes in boiling-water bath.

My original sketch of the recipe included a homemade raspberry red wine vinegar (far better than the abortive attempt at raspberry-vanilla vodka), but I found the results a tad heavy on the raspberry. In the future I'd use a more neutral white or cider vinegar, and I've made the change to the recipe. I'm also curious whether using the jalapeno-infused vinegar is really necessary, or whether simply cooking the jam is enough to draw out the spiciness. Thoughts?

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results of this experiment and will likely continue tweaking this recipe next year. It's quite tasty spread on wheat crackers with some cream cheese and would probably be equally good mixed with a goat cheese spread.

Experiments in Food Preservation, Part One: Watermelon Jelly

I know it's November and nearly the end of the harvest season, but I've been meaning to post about this year's experiments with preserves and figured now was as good a time as any. Ever since I started preserving my own jams several years ago, I've been looking for some kind of base recipe to play with. The one book I own on the subject, Carol Costenbader's well-known Big Book of Preserving the Harvest, isn't very helpful in this regard, and the author warns against any changes made to a recipe. Much of the reason for this is that sugar helps to preserve the food, so any decrease in amount or changes in produce can throw off the balance within a recipe. Last year, after some frustration with my preserve-making skills, I discovered Pomona Universal Pectin, which is a wonderful dry pectin that allows you to make low-sugar, honey, or what I call "fake sugar" preserves. Better yet, they provide a recipe sheet that includes instructions for developing your own recipes for preserves. I've been using the stuff for over a year now and can't say enough nice things.

This summer I came into the possession of many watermelons and cantaloupes via my mother's garden. Much as I love melons, I find it really hard to use them before they go bad, so I looked into preservation methods. Because all melons have a high water content, it's difficult to do much with them. But they can be cut up and frozen for later use in sorbet or granita, or you can freeze the pressed juice or puree. A less common method of preserving melons is to turn them into jellies. Though it truly sounds odd, I was intrigued enough by the possibilities to give it a try. Much like grape, or anything other sort of jelly, you start out with juice. To make watermelon juice, you just cut up the flesh and press it through a sieve. The folks at Fair Share Farm posted simple directions for watermelon juice back in August. Yum. Once you've got the juice and the Pomona pectin, the rest is pretty easy.

Below is the recipe I came up with, based on Ponoma's recommendations. This makes a small 1-cup batch, roughly enough for a half-pint jar. I've adjusted the amount of pectin, since the batch I made turned out a bit too thick.

Watermelon Jelly

1 cup watermelon juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon calcium water (included in box of Pomona pectin)
1/4 cup sugar or honey
1/2 teaspoon Pomona Universal Pectin

1. Stir together watermelon juice, lemon juice, and calcium water in saucepan. In a separate bowl, stir together sugar/honey and pectin.

2. Heat juice to boiling and add pectin/sugar mixture. Stir vigorously 1-2 minute to dissolve pectin, then bring mixture back to a boil and remove from heat.

3. Fill jars to 1/4" from top and seal. Store in fridge up to 1 month or process for 10 minutes in boiling-water bath.

So now you're probably wondering how it tasted. Well, to be totally honest, it tastes a bit weird. I tried it with some buttered Farm to Market French Farm bread, and it wasn't bad. My significant other tried some on a peanut sandwich with less success. But give it a try next summer during melon season and see what you think. Maybe you'll love it.

P.S. Once you're done with your watermelon flesh, consider pickling the rind for a sweet winter treat!