Let's Jam! Making Your Own Small Batch Preserves | Kelly Geary | Skillshare
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Let's Jam! Making Your Own Small Batch Preserves

teacher avatar Kelly Geary

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Welcome!

      0:36

    • 2.

      Equipment Needed

      1:33

    • 3.

      Food Safety

      1:34

    • 4.

      Preparing the Fruit

      3:30

    • 5.

      Adding Water

      0:20

    • 6.

      Pectin 101

      1:33

    • 7.

      Testing for Doneness

      1:37

    • 8.

      Filling the Jars

      3:41

    • 9.

      Different Kinds of Jars

      1:18

    • 10.

      Ways to Use Jam

      0:13

    • 11.

      Share Your Project!

      0:07

    • 12.

      Thanks For Watching

      0:42

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2

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About This Class

Learn how to make small batch fruit jam at home. In this class, you will learn the process and safety guidelines for canning jam in your home kitchen. This class will show you an easy way to preserve the bounty of your garden or farmers market with just basic kitchen skills required. Once you have learned the basics, the possibilities are endless!

Meet Your Teacher

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Kelly Geary

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Transcripts

1. Welcome!: Hi, My name's Kelly Gary, and I'm the owner of Sweet Deliverance, a small batch preserves company based out of New York City. I'm also the author of Tartan Suite 101 Canning Recipes for the Modern Kitchen. Today's class is called Let's Jam. How to Make Small Batch Preserves in Your Home Kitchen. We'll be making spiced pear jam and covering everything from Froot Prep and cooking to Canning Jam safely. By the end of this class, we should be able to make your own badge of spiced pear jam and upload photos of the jam that you've made so we can see how you've used it. 2. Equipment Needed: So for each project, you're going to start out with setting up your jars. Um, I like to use thes four ounce jars from Fillmore Container and these, uh, plastics all black metal lids. You can also use ball jars that have the two piece lids, Um, with the actual lit in this screw bend, um, to sterilise the jars for your project, you're gonna wash them in hot, soapy water and then put them on a cookie sheet like this, and then you're gonna put them in the oven at 250 degrees while you're working on your project and you wanna have a station set up on one side of your work area with your lids, Um, a dish child to place your hot jars, some tongs to remove the jars from the oven, paper towels to wipe off the rim of your jar, and your cup that you're going to use to pour the jam into the jars. The other equipment you're gonna need for this project is, ah, large mixing bowl to contain the fruit that you're using Today, it's gonna be pairs for our spiced pear butter, some measuring cups for your ingredients measuring spoons, knives for chopping fruit, a peeler, some tasting spoons, a micro plane, a scale toe, way out ingredients or the fruit, um, in a large pot and wooden spoon to make your actual Jim. 3. Food Safety: food safety and cleanliness is really important when you're canning and preserves or any other food. But there's a few a few steps that you can follow, and they're pretty easy. And you can be insured that you'll can safely and not give anyone botulism or food poisoning. So what we're going to start out with is your jars that were actually heating in the oven Right now they're sterilized. Um, and the other thing you wanna worry about is your pH. So most jams you're gonna add lemon juice. Um, that's gonna bring your pH to 4.6 or lower. That's going to inhibit any bacterial growth. Um, you also want to be careful of any food matter being on the rim of your jar when you're pouring the jam into the jar. You want to make sure you wipe this edge very carefully. Um, and then the temperature is also important. So the temperature we're doing the hot fill method today and you want the center of your jar to be between 180 100 and 90 degrees to stay on the safe side. I always just start canning the jam while it's actually bubbling away. So, you know, it's at least 200 to 10. Um, And that way, no bacteria is gonna grow inside your jar once it's sealed. Um, once you've done this and you've gotten a good seal on your jar, you can keep these in your pantry for up to two years, Maybe longer. Um, nothing is going to get into the jar that will make it turn back. 4. Preparing the Fruit: today for our spiced pear butter, we're gonna use thes nice organic pears, some organic sugar, a little brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and star knees. We're also gonna add our limit. I want to start by peeling the pears and core ing them. You want to remove with a small knife. Any little brown spots such as thes little bruises. It's best to use fruit that's in season for the time that you're making jam. So now it's January, and pears and apples are in season. Um, you could also make marmalade is in the winter. Wait to see Jimmy Mess. Quarter the pears, take a small paring knife and remove the core, and then you want to chop these into small pieces. I'm placing it into the bull. We're gonna add one cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, one teaspoon of cinnamon, two star unease and about half of a nutmeg. We're also gonna add lemon zest and lemons juice. - Give that a good start and then place it into your pot, where you're going to cook the jam 5. Adding Water: as you start using your cooking your fruit down, Um, it's going to start to break down and get soft like this. You want to add a little bit of water, um, slowly, like maybe 1/2 a cup at a time just to keep it moist and keep stirring it often to keep it from burning or sticking to the bottom of the pan. 6. Pectin 101: Once you have your fruit in the pot and it's bubbling away, you want to keep an eye on it to make sure it's not sticking to the bottom of the pan. If it starts to get a little bit try, you can add a bit of water, maybe half a cup or a couple of time, depending on how fast the water is evaporating from your fruit. Every recipe is gonna be a little bit different, depending on the fruit you're using. If the repairs air softer and more watery and you won't have to add any water or maybe a little bit less. And if the pant pairs air fibrous and harder, you're gonna add a little bit more water than maybe other recipes. If you're making something like Strawberry Jim, you won't add water to your recipe at all. Um, thes air softer fruits and will cook down much faster than pears or apples. Um, and some fruits. This pairs are fibrous, so they'll be thick by nature, but other fruits like strawberries and blueberries and grapes, some have more pectin and their skins and others. Pectin is what makes your Jim thick and that jelly like consistency that you like to spread on your toast. Um, some fruits that are really high in pectin are Concord grapes. Um, and blueberries. Citrus. Um, so you can also add commercial pectin if you like. I like to use Ramona's natural pectin. You're gonna add that with a calcium powder and some sweetener, so you want to just make sure that you follow the directions on the box for that? You'd want to use pectin if you're making a jam like strawberry or raspberry or maybe even blackberries. 7. Testing for Doneness: So your fruits going to start to break down and be a little bit chunky like this? You can blend it up if you want to get a super smooth texture. Um, so what we're gonna do next as we keep stirring you don't want to stick to the bottom of the pan? Is use a spoon to remove the star unease that is now broken up just a tiny bit from the butter. You don't want those bits in there. Everything's gonna turn this like really nice dark brown color and be nice and thick. Oops. Another way you contest for doneness is to keep a small saucer like this in the freezer with a spoon on it. You can put a tiny bit of the butter into the spoon. This is great, but if it's weepy, gets weepy and watery around the the center of it, then it's not done yet, and you want to cook a little bit more water out of it. You can keep this in the freezer now We're going to keep this bubbling, maybe turn down the heat just a little bit 8. Filling the Jars : so I have turned the heat down to low. So this is bubbling away and still hot but not going crazy. Then I want to pull my hot jars out of the oven and put them on this cloth on your countertop. I usually like to do about four jars at a time. Doing only four jars lets you fill the jars, clean the edge and put the lid on without letting the temperature drop too much. So then, next we're going Teoh, empty the contents of your pot into a measuring cup or some kind of utensil that you can pour your butter into the jars thing is still quite hot and thick. Then we're gonna take this import into your jars, and you want to leave about 1/4 inch between the top of your jam and the top of the jar. This leaves enough space that while the dream is cooling, it creates a vacuum to seal your jar. Hopefully, we can get enough for this fourth jar, Then the most important part is the cleaning. You want to take a damp paper towel and wipe the top edge of the jar so there's no food particles between the top of the jar and the lid can tap this down. And then just so you can see there's that quarter inch of space between the top of the jam and the top of the jar, and this one's a little bit more. So you just want to grab yours Boone and take a little bit. Then you want to screw on the lid, and you want the lead to be snug but not super tight using a child so you don't burn yourself, just make it snug and turn it upside down. Turning it upside down puts all the hot jam against the plastics all lining and the lid that's going to create your seal so that this will be safe in your pantry. You want to leave them upside down for about 10 minutes, and then you can turn them right side up. If you're using the two piece ball jar lid. As the jar cools down and the jam cools down, you'll be able to hear a pop. This'll you should not be able to push the top of the lid up and down, and that's gonna let you know that you have a safe seal 9. Different Kinds of Jars: So let's talk a bit about the safety again. One more time you're gonna want to make sure that your pH is 4.6 or lower, and that's gonna happen by you. Adding the lemon juice to your recipe. One lemon Um, you want to leave the head space, which is the quarter inch between the top of your jam and the top of the jar, and then you also want to be sure to move any. Remove any food particles between the top of your jar and the lid. If there's any space for air to get in, then that's gonna let oxygen inside and cause your food to turn bad. We can also talk about different kinds of jars you can use. There's the ball jar that has the two piece lid with the top and the screw band. And then you can order all kinds of jars from companies like film or container. And there's also Vek jars, which have a rubber seal and some clips that you can use, and they're really pretty. I'm you just want to follow the instructions on the ball jar box as how to use those. It's really simple. Same concept. Um, and these, like I demonstrated just cleaning the top the plastic Saul seal and designed the inside of the lid and screwing it on snugly and turning it upside down to get all that hot jam, kind of making the sealant malleable. 10. Ways to Use Jam: Once you finish your project, there's several ways that you can use your jam. You can classically spread it on toast, put it on waffles, pancakes over ice cream and yogurt and even as filling in cake. 11. Share Your Project!: Once you've finished your class project, take a picture of your jar of jam and upload it so we can see how you've used yours. 12. Thanks For Watching: thanks so much for watching class, so I'm gonna give you a little recap today. We've learned how to big spiced pear jam using £7 of pears, peeled, cored and chopped. One cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of brown sugar zehs, injures of one lemon, two stories, one teaspoon cinnamon and half a grated nothing. I've also covered the safety guidelines for processing and adding your lemon juice to achieve the proper pH. Jarring your Jamet 200 degrees, leaving 1/4 inch of head space between the jam on the top of your jar and carefully cleaning the rim of your jar before placing. I hope you've enjoyed this class, and I look forward to seeing all your projects with loads of photos of all your delicious jam. Thanks.