Kitchen Garden Forum

The way food prices are rising, I guess that will make welcome presents Edible.

glallotments wrote:We freeze lots of fruit - we have too much to eat fresh - sometimes the fruit is left whole (gooseberries/blackcurrants etc) or chopped (plums etc.) but some fruit such as strawberries isn't good frozen this way so we make a compote and freeze that. This way we use less sugar than jams. Sometimes the compote is the cooked type and other times we just sprinkle sugar over the fruit and leave it to go syrupy and then freeze

Sounds lovely...

We make high fruit/low sugar jams. ie no way is that the same weight fruit to sugar. It can be a little harder to get a good set but the flavour is worth it. Just made blackberry and apple that is fruity and tangy rather than sweet.

if low sugar jams ye want DR.Oether has a product called gelfix . one kg of fruit to 350g of sugar ideal for making a easy jam it contains pectin and gelatine .i get the packs from a german friend its not available in ireland.i have made rhubarb,strawberry,raspberry,blackcurrant,gooseberry,and blackberry and apple it tastes very good. Dr Oetker has 3 types of gel fix one uses 350g of sugar per kilo of fruit another uses 500g of sugar per kilo of fruit the other i havent used .the packs can be used to set 900ml of fruit juice instead of 1 kg of fruit.i usally use gelfix super1 part sugar to 3 parts fruit
it sets every time it takes minuites to make once the fruit is cooked. just cook the fruit boil hard for 3 minuites and thats it
best of luck
nemo

That sounds very useful stuff.
Does the jam keep well for a long time in sealed jars or do you have to put it in the frig. I've found some gelatine based foods tend to go watery after a time.

John

the strawberry jam we made last may 2010 is still perfect

nemo wrote:if low sugar jams ye want DR.Oether has a product called gelfix . one kg of fruit to 350g of sugar ideal for making a easy jam it contains pectin and gelatine .i get the packs from a german friend its not available in ireland.i have made rhubarb,strawberry,raspberry,blackcurrant,gooseberry,and blackberry and apple it tastes very good. Dr Oetker has 3 types of gel fix one uses 350g of sugar per kilo of fruit another uses 500g of sugar per kilo of fruit the other i havent used .the packs can be used to set 900ml of fruit juice instead of 1 kg of fruit.i usally use gelfix super1 part sugar to 3 parts fruit
it sets every time it takes minuites to make once the fruit is cooked. just cook the fruit boil hard for 3 minuites and thats it
best of luck
nemo

Hmmm. gelatine....A whole different kettle of fish. They use that in LIDL jams. "setting agent"

Is it of animal derivation?

A costly way... We make our own apple pectin. Easy when you have abundant apples. Or we buy apple pectin in powdered form from a jam maker.

the instructioins are in german my friend said it has pectin ,fruit acid ,and seaweed

Fruits bottled with some appropriate alcohol go down well at christmas.
Fruit made into icecream and frozen,
or freeze the fruit and then process with a banana, you need a good proportion of fruit to the banana and it comes out as instant icecream , serve immediately, very healthy no fat and no sugar just the sweetness of the fruit, even my diabetic mum can enjoy that.
Herbs in oil, for example tarragon oil is great for cooking fish.
I bottle too, ratatuille utilising aubergines courgettes peppers and tomatoes gives a great flavour of summer in winter.
Pears bottled in red wine.
I make parsnip cakes and freeze them and leftover potato and cabbage are made into patties and frozen in individual bubble and squeek portions
beetroots bottled in vinegar,and beetroot chutney
mushrooms can be dried,if you don't have a drier thread on a string in a warm airing cupboard, I dry my seeds and some herbs in the airing cupboard too

nemo wrote:the instructioins are in german my friend said it has pectin ,fruit acid ,and seaweed

The seaweed is the gelatine then.. We use extra pectin which works fine. And lemon juice for the fruit acid.

We trade in gourmet preserves using very traditional recipes. My speciality is marmalade and there are usually at least eight kinds for sale.

Catshead Apple Chutney.

Has a certain ring to it.

Less so if you realise the name is after the cobblestones.....

peter wrote:Catshead Apple Chutney.

Has a certain ring to it.

Less so if you realise the name is after the cobblestones.....

lol... SO far it is the windfalls from another place being used as they are damaged..

Fascinating how trees etc are named.

A local gardent/tree centre has these listed for sale as they love the old varieties. They also let us take what we like from their reject section so I shall keep an eye open. We have four dwarf apple trees that way; 2 Katy, 2 Coxs

Had a glut of apricots this year from my one small tree. So far we have made a crumble (delicious), a less fattening puree for stirring through yogurt etc, bottled (in brandy, Hic!), roasted, made ice cream and ice lollies and jam. Now waiting for the pears to ripen!

Gosh you've been busy and what a nice selection of goodies made. Hope you have a nice big freezer or two to accommodate all these preserves. Guess it's been ideal weather for everything ripening nicely with all this sunshine. Well done !

Well, it's more like well done to Mrs Carrot really Primrose. I just picked them. Thought it might be divorce when I brought the last colanderful into the kitchen!

Wow Steve!

That is amazing! What a great harvest! My Plum Beauty which always flowers before the last frost & does nothing has produced loads this year! It did flower early as usual but not fully, so some missed the worst of the snow. My Victoria is laden as well so been busy looking up recipes to preserve the crop! So far jam, pies & thinking of trying some Chinese plum sauce & I have a friend who will appreciate the plum gin recipe I have found also! (One Xmas gift sorted then)!

I know how your wife feels but can only blame myself!