OUTSIDE THE BOX – STRAWBERRY ROSEMARY JAM WITH PINK PEPPERCORNS



The Palette

Hello again, friends!  I’ve been on quite a roll lately, and I’m really excited to share this latest mini-adventure with you.  I’ve recently taken an interest in canning/preserving foods, and that means I get to open up a fresh box of awesome when it comes to trying something new.  I’ve mentioned before how I grew up on a farm, and how my family made everything from scratch.  Well, canning and preserving was a big part of that.  More than anything, I’m trying to ensure that this family skill doesn’t just fade away.  And as I’ve talked about before, I’m loathe to waste anything, so this method of food preparation is right up my alley.  And if you feel the same way I do about getting creative with ingredients you can’t use before they go bad, then get comfortable and pay attention.

My family took a mini-vacation to visit Grandma and Grandpa and the cousins, leaving me home alone to fend for myself.  Now, of course I miss them, but it also gives me a great deal of freedom in the kitchen to do some…experimenting [insert mad scientist diabolical laugh here].  So, given my recent leanings toward learning how to preserve food, I took a spin through the refrigerator to see what sort of palette of goodies I had to work with.  And hey, I found a quart of beautiful strawberries that looked like they were about to go south.  I also found a package of fresh rosemary in about the same situation, and the thought struck me: how good would it be to make a fresh jam from both of them?  Brilliant!

Now, I’ve never heard of a strawberry and rosemary jam, but the combination makes a lot of sense to me.  Here’s how I see it: strawberries are floral and acidic, with a very distinct, biting sweetness.  Rosemary is my go-to Italian herb of choice, and I’ve paired it with everything from tomatoes to ricotta cheese.  Something inside my brain just clicked, and I felt that it would be the perfect combination.  I’ve done some experiments with diametrically opposed flavor profiles in the past, and I’m a big fan.  Sweet/savory; hot/sweet; sweet/acid…these are all things that I’ve made work in the past.  I figured that sweet/woodsy would be just as good.

The story doesn’t end here, friends.  The more I thought about the combination, the more I thought that it would need one more thing to really tie it together, otherwise it would just be a jar of strawberry jam that tasted of rosemary.  So I took a spin through the spice cabinet, looking for just the right bridge between the sweet, floral notes of the strawberry and the piney, woodsy loveliness of the rosemary.  Something to punch you right in your flavor-maker.  Yep, I found it: PINK PEPPERCORNS!!

For those of you who may never have heard of pink peppercorns, it really is the perfect bridge between the fruit world and the herbaceous world.  It’s got the hallmark flavor of black pepper, albeit not as assertive, but it also hits you with a real aromatic note of florality (is that a word?).  It really ties the two main ingredients together without detracting from the flavor profile of the jam.

So what did I do, you might ask…well, here we go.  Let’s cut to the chase.  This isn’t going to be symposium on canning, but I will list some of the very basics.  First of all, I cleaned my jars – I bought a case of 1-pint wide-mouth mason jars – and then placed them in a simmering water bath to sterilize them.  I only used two jars for this recipe since I only had a quart of strawberries to work with.  While this was going on, I cleaned and destemmed my berries.  Basically, I just pulled the tops off and then cored out the stump with a paring knife.  Yes, you could just cut the whole top off and speed things up, but remember, I don’t like to waste anything.

Once my strawberries were cleaned and destemmed, I mashed them in a large glass measuring cup.  I started with roughly 4 cups of whole berries and ended up with 2 cups of mashed berries.  My recipe called for a great deal more, so I made the right adjustment with the sugar.  For two cups of berries, I used 3 cups of sugar.  I also used one whole 3oz. package of liquid fruit pectin.  You can get this in the canning section of any store.  Pectin helps your jam set properly; otherwise you’ll just have a really nice glaze or pancake syrup and not a nice, solid jam.  I’m sure I used way too much given the amount of mashed berries I had, but anecdotally you can’t use too much (in all fairness, I’m sure there are limits, but I’m not a food scientist).  You want it to set.  Period.

Anyhoo, I put my mashed berries in a saucepan and added the pectin.  I gently brought it to a rolling boil, stirring often.  Once it boils, add your sugar all at once and return it to a full boil for 1 full minute.  Use a bigger saucepan than you think you need because it will try very hard to boil over.

WARNING: LIQUID, BOILING SUGAR IS NASTY.  I TREAT IT LIKE LAVA. YOU DON’T WANT TO GET HOT SUGAR ON YOUR SKIN.  NO BUENO.  JUST BE CAREFUL, M’KAY.

Ok, once it boils for a minute, remove it from the heat and skim off the foam with a spoon.  I haven’t read anything that says this step has to be perfect, but do your best.  Once I got the majority of the foam out of there, I stirred in 1Tbs. of finely chopped rosemary and 1Tbs. of pink peppercorns.  Don’t be tempted to overdo the peppercorns.  I may have used a rounded Tbs. of them, and trust me…a little goes a long way.  Did I mention not to overdo it?

Once I had everyone stirred in, I filled my jars with the magma-hot liquid using a canning funnel and ladle.  This amount of material gave me one whole pint jar plus one more nearly full.  I think if I’d had 2 ½ cups of mashed berries and used 3 ½ cups of sugar, I’d have had two full pints.  Oh, BTW, fill the jars to within ¼ inch of the top.  Then add your lids and rings and process them in a boiling water bath for 5-7 minutes.  Just go to any canning website for a basic run-through.  Remove from the bath and set on a towel or rack to cool overnight.  Oh, and by the way, they’re going to be HOT for a while.  If you have kids with curious hands like I do, get the jars well out of reach.

 

 

If you end up with any jars that aren’t filled completely, don’t bother with the canning routine.  You want to enjoy it anyway.  Let those jars cool on the countertop for a couple hours and then just put them in the fridge.  I waited overnight for the jam to set, and then had some this morning on toast made from my homemade bread.  Super money!

Well, that’s it, friends.  I just wanted to share my little adventure with you, and encourage you to step outside the box and try something new every once in a while.  If you’re curious about different herb/flavor/etc. combinations, drop me a comment or send me an email to fearnotyourkitchen@gmail.com and we can explore your idea.  As always, if you want to just tell me about your own cool kitchen adventure, or point out something I could do better, I’m all ears!

Until next time, friends!