Yesterday I attempted to make a batch of
Strawberry Vanilla Jam from Marisa McClellan's
Food in Jars. I followed all the directions to the best of my ability, hoping to yield about 4 pints of jam.
I started by chopping about 6 cups of delicious strawberries, cleaning 2 vanilla bean pods, and mixing them with 1 cup of sugar to macerate overnight.
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| Vanilla beans are surprisingly hard to clean. |
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| Mmmm sugary deliciousness. |
I was really excited to have the chance to use my brand, shiny, new preserving pot. Seriously, this thing is the nicest thing I own.
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| Pot beauty. |
I cooked away, adding more sugar and liquid pectin. I have never used liquid pectin before. It has a very odd texture. After adding the pectin, I was to get the concoction up to 220 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 2 minutes. I used my special canning thermometer.
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| Bubble, bubble. |
The problem with this thermometer is that it has a special piece at the bottom which prevents the glass of the thermometer from coming in contact with the bottom of the pot. My preserving pot is wide and the liquid is very shallow to increase surface area so that cooking times are decreased. The metal piece on the bottom of my thermometer prevented the bottom of the thermometer from being fully submerged in the liquid, giving me a cooler readout than the actual temperature.
The result? Something that I can only refer to as Strawberry Vanilla Chew.
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| Gravity ain't got nothin on this. |
I've learned that I need a thermometer that can accurately read the temperature. (Yes, I know. No duh! But I'm new at this, ok?) Next time, I will use my digital thermometer instead.
I've got enough strawberries left over, but I don't have any more vanilla pods. Seriously, those things are expensive. I'm going to try again, with just regular type strawberry jam.
And all hope is not lost for the Strawberry Vanilla Chew. Scott suggests using it as an ingredient in some awesome oatmeal bars. So we'll see how that goes.
