The “real preserving season” begins now at the “deep, sticky end of summer”, said Itamar Srulovich in The Guardian. “In fact, September may well be the best jam month of all.”
As the weather starts to cool there is plenty of produce to turn into jars of the sweet spread. Plums offer “near endless possibilities” and some varieties can “take a surprising amount of spice”, while figs’ “honeyed sweetness” matches up perfectly with a “few pods of cooling cardamom for balance”. It’s well worth “sweating over” pots of fig jam in late summer, so that there’s a “little bit of jarred sunshine” ready and waiting for the dark, cold winter months.
Things are a bit trickier when it comes to grapes. They must be chosen carefully as most of the sweet commercial fruits lack the “funk” and “acidity” needed for a good jam. The fragola variety, with its “intoxicating, wild strawberry flavour”, is a “rare treat”.
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Making jam has an “undeniable romance”, said Jane Black in The Wall Street Journal. Just three ingredients are needed: fruit, sugar and lemon juice. Heat them over the stove, and they become “summer in a jar”. “It’s true alchemy.”
It might sound simple, but perfecting the texture and consistency of homemade jam can be surprisingly difficult. Jam-making business owner Daniel Perry suggests using a copper jam pan which “conducts heat extraordinarily well”, and making jam in small batches to ensure the fruit on the bottom doesn’t burn. It’s also worth macerating the fruits in sugar and lemon juice the night before to help “extract juice” before you move on to the cooking.
For a “well-rounded”, gently spiced blackberry and apple jam, try Elspeth Biltoft’s recipe in Stylist. The founder of Rosebud Preserves uses golden granulated sugar in her jams, only cooks with seasonal fruits that are “fresh, firm and slightly underripe” and carefully labels every jar with the date and tasting notes so you can improve your recipe each year.
