Saturday, September 06, 2008

Adventures in Cooking

I grew up in a family with lots of kids and not always so much money so there is a part of me that tries to use everything we have so I don't have to throw it away.

Well, last week the kids & I got a 3 lb container of grapes from Sam's. I washed them, spun them in the salad spinner and stored them in the refrigerator. Since we didn't eat that many and the kids are at their Dad's this weekend, I knew they were going to go bad before we would get through all of them.

So, I decide to see if there was a recipe for freezer jam on the internet and there was!

I started to crush the grapes with my potato masher but that was going to leave really big chunks and pieces of skin.

Time to pull out the food mill (got at a 2nd hand store in Moorhead, MN many years ago. My Mom has one just like it only hers is a wee bit older.) and try to force the fruit through the strainer. Well, that wasn't working either. Time for plan C. Get out the food processor and send all the grapes through the food processor and then through the food mill.

That worked much better and you can see the skins leftover in the food mill. I did put some in the jam for interest and color but most of the skin pieces went into the trash.
Pour in the sugar and let stand for 10 minutes.
Cook the pectin, mix into the sugary fruit mixture and put into containers.
Let stand at room temp overnight and then place in the freezer for up to 1 year.
Here's the sad part of this equation, I had everything at my house in the pantry to make the jam including jars and pectin.

3 comments:

Diane said...

Looks good Sarah. Let me know how it tatses. Did you give a link to the recipe? I can;t remember. If not would love to have it. We always end up with way too many grapes then we can eat. I like to freeze them and eat them that way as a snack, but still end up with way too many even in the freezer. You are like me. Saving jars and bottles, and having thin gs like pectin on hand to make jam just in case there is too much fruit around the house!

Sonia said...

Sarah, please do share the recipe link.....This sounds like something I would like to make. Like Diane, we also freeze grapes just to eat as a snack, but I think I would like to make the jam too. I make a strawberry freezer jam that we like also.
TIA!!!

Eduarda said...

I think I might be brave enough to try something with strawberries. Had you done this before?