A festive sort of jam.

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A festive sort of jam.
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sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:09 am Post subject: A festive sort of jam.
I know a lot of you guys don't like talking about the "C" word so early on but Mrs C and myself like to be organsied and get all excited about the planning and creating of Chritmas things. So I was thinking to put in hampers this year, I'd like to make a Christmas stylie jam. Does anyone have a recipe for such a thing? Thanks

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:10 am Post subject:
Could you spread mincemeat flavour stuff on toast? Not sure how you'd make it, but mince meat jam?

Monki magic

Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Posts: 161
Location: Stockport

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:12 am Post subject:
I'm not sure but my wife made the best Chutney I have ever tasted yesterday and that's without maturation time. Will try and post recipe later and you could always add some Christmas spices to it. I think it would work very well

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:22 am Post subject:
Nick, not sure on the mincemeat thing. Can anyone confirm? Monki, always happy for a chutney recipe so that would be great please but I have jars of chutney just maturing for the hampers. I don't mind even if it's a jelly that is somehow flavoured with christmas tastes.

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18415

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:29 am Post subject:

How about some kind of jelly where you hang some of the following whole spices in a muslin bag over the side of the pan : cinnamon stick, coriander seed, sliced root ginger, mace blades. Basically whole versions of whatever goes in Xmas cake / pudding / mulled wine.
I think a red / dark jelly would be good for this, so redcurrant or blackberry as a base.

Or make a jam and either do the muslin bag thing with the spices, or use ground ones, seeing as your jam will be opaque anyway.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:29 am Post subject:
https://forum.downsizer.net/viewtopic.php?p=1001455#1001455 This was truly excellent, and I could be tempted to get off my arse again this year. Maybe.

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:31 am Post subject:
Gil, I like your thinking. Now I already make a blackberry jelly, so would I be best making it as normal and then adding it back to the pan with the muslin bag attached to the side for a while, whilst boiling it, or just put the bag in from the start? Thanks.

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:36 am Post subject:

Nick wrote:

https://forum.downsizer.net/viewtopic.php?p=1001455#1001455

This was truly excellent, and I could be tempted to get off my arse again this year. Maybe.

Recipe sounds good, Nick. Not sure it would be to good on toast though.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:38 am Post subject:
Think it would be fine on toasted tea cakes/things with fruit in.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45670
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:41 am Post subject: Christmas jam

This is our Christmas jam, it's gone down well so far:

Cooked in 2 phases:

1.5 kg apple cooked to puree with cloves, cinammon, nutmeg, ginger in 200ml orange juice.

Added chopped dried fruit to the above mix and left to soak overnight:

250g raisins
600g apricots

Softened 200g lemon + 1 kg clementine (finely sliced) in own juices.

added apple mix and 500ml water (the apple mix was quite solid), once warm added:

1.8 kg stoned plums
2.6 kg sugar

Boiled to set.

Last edited by tahir on Mon Sep 12, 11 12:09 pm; edited 2 times in total

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18415

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:41 am Post subject:

Bag in the pan once you have just juice, rather than the fruit as well.

If the 'holes' in the fabric of your bag are small enough, you could bash the spices to let their taste/fragrance out.

If not, and you are using them whole, remember to add rather more spice than you would think necessary !
In fact, do that anyway.

When I used to make chilli-flavoured orange marmalade for the 'hint of'/wussy market, I was boiling 15 green (whole) birdseye chillies in the muslin bag to get that 'hint of'.

Another thought for a jelly spice : blackcurrant and (bashed with a rolling pin) juniper berries is pretty good, though not specifically Xmas spicing.

Also thinking about it, some spices have very volatile oils, so just add them at /near the end if making jam and adding ground-up spices : nutmeg is one such.

Thinking about it, this has some parallels with making soap and trying to perfume it using kitchen spices !

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 11:58 am Post subject:
Thank you Nick, Tahir and Gil. I think I'll give Thair's a go this year and maybe do some experimenting next year with redcurrents and blackberries to see what I can come up with.

Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 12:16 pm Post subject:
Damson jam with a hint of chocolate (cocoa powder), some mace and allspice berries.

otatop

Joined: 01 Jun 2005
Posts: 1425
Location: North London

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 1:17 pm Post subject:
How about marmalade laced with some sort of spirit - whisky/drambuie/brandy?

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 11 5:53 pm Post subject: Re: Christmas jam

tahir wrote:

cloves, cinammon, nutmeg, ginger

Tahir, please coudl you tell me how much of the above ingredients should I use? and should I use ground up or whole?

Thanks.

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