got a late birthday gift today from my sis-in-law. got a 15.5 quart enamel ware over steel stockpot. comes with a steamer and i have no idea how to use it (the steamer) hahaha. the biggest pot i had before today was 3 quarts. talk about doing the happy dance. love love love her (and my new pot). sis is so generous and thoughtful.
tonight i made some more grape jelly. the first batch overcooked and it resembles hard candy. i hope to figure out how to salvage it at a later date, but the second batch was a success--or at least i thought so. i found that i probably cooked the first batch too long (too hot) and got to the softball stage. oh well, lesson learned. the really cool thing though about these grapes is that they contain natural pectin, so i didn't have to add any. everyone keeps telling me you need this enormous amount of sugar or you can't make grape jelly. most say 1:1. some say 7:5 (sugar to juice) but i tried it 1:2. in other words i used 1/2 the amount of sugar to grape juice. these were Concords and already very sweet right from the vine.
NOTE: I DID NOT add any pectin.
1. i de-stemmed and simmered the grapes in water (1 cup for every quart of grapes) for about 20-30 minutes and squished in the pan with a potato masher to help expel more juice.
2. i strained the grapes through a colander and then ran the remaining skins and pulp through a food mill.
3. i took all the juice from both strainings and added the sugar 1:2 (sugar:juice).
4. i boiled the juice stirring constantly and monitoring with a candy thermometer. when the mixture reached exactly (to the point) 8 degrees past the boiling point of water for your altitude (mine is 212 degrees) and removed it from the heat immediately to prevent over cooking as i did with the first batch.
5. i immediately spooned into ready (sterile and hot) canning jars and allowed to cool and seal with no water bath. as it cooled it jelled nicely and tasted wonderful and not too sweet.
now for the funny part. i took a spoonful of the 2nd batch to my husband for comparison as he had already tried the first batch which was so thick he had to chew it. his response to me was...
"it tastes like grapes."
imagine my dismayed reply
"i know it tastes like grapes."
then he looked at me somewhat bewildered and i began to grunt like a caveman at him while frantically beating my chest. he responded,
"now, you're learning."
"too bad, i have no idea what i said."
"and i thought you were into learning all about this communication"
to which i replied with another few grunts and walked off back to my kitchen where i could converse with my toaster oven.
I had some frozen tomatoes (whole) from last season and wanted to cook up some pizza sauce. Here's the website I used as a guide.
http://www.tammysrecipes.com/pizza_sauceHere's the recipe I used.
4 cups peeled, cored, seeded and drained tomatoes
(about 1 gallon 1/2 ziplock bags stuffed full of tomatoes between golf ball and tennis ball size)
Throw in small sauce pan and start cooking on med/low. Add ingredients
1 tsp sugar
1/3 tsp black pepper
1/3 tsp salt
1/3 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp (pinch) of sweet basil
Stir occasionally to keep from scalding and keep the heat low (few bubbles) until thick. You can probably puree before you cook, but I did it when it appeared that all of the liquid was cooked out (about an hour) and it was pasty and perfect. Yield 1 pint (about 2 pizzas worth).
NOTES:
There wasn't much liquid to cook out as the frozen tomatoes tend to loose their juice easily when peeled and cored. I then threw them in a collander until I was ready to use them.
The main differences between her recipe and mine is the sugar and the thickening. She said to add 1.5 T to 6 cups of tomatoes, blech, sounded way toooo sweet to me. 1 tsp to 4 cups was perfect! I also didn't use any cornstarch - it really didn't need it.
I tried my hand at some strawberry jam. didn't have the right kind of pectin, so my brain figured if I just put an extra dab of citric acid in it, everything would be fine....well, the moral of the story is....ok, there isn't one. it tastes good on icecream and might even make a good pancake syrup, but jam it is NOT.
