Directions: |
Directions:Put your peach skins and fruit into a large stew pan (to make 4 cups exactly you made need to add water) add the lemon juice and bring to a boil. (If you don't like chunks of fruit, you can puree the fruit and skins.) As it boils be sure and STIR CONSTANTLY; it burns easily. Boil for 1 minute, remove from heat and add 1 bottle of liquid pectin. Stir and skim foam. Keep the foam by ladling it into bowl and use first. Spoon or ladle the fruit into hot, sterilized jars to within a 3/4 inch of top of jar. Wipe jar rim with clean damp cloth, put on lid and rings, adjust lids (need to be screwed on tight). Process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes. Remove from water bath, tighten lids, if needed, turn over on tea towel to finish sealing. You will hear a pop when the jars seal and the lid will be indented. If the jam doesn't jell like you want, don't discard - this makes a delicious pancake syrup or add to muffins. When making jellies or jams you need to use exact measurements, of the fruit and sugar, to make it jell correctly. |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: Mama did this every canning season. The house smelled wonderful and the jam made a delicious topping on her homemade bread. It was the most beautiful, clear, burnt orange/yellow color. She never used half pints, she did it mostly by the pint. Sometimes a quart was used. I remember her using a canning sieve, the ones that look like a cone with a long, cone shaped wooden pestle. She used to push the fruit through the holes along the sides of this sieve, thus making more of a liquid and not chunky texture. I don't remember her jam being super chunky. She washed the jars and carried them to the basement where she kept her canned goods. I don't remember her using the pear skins to make a jam, but they didn't go to waste, because she used them to make more of an apple butter. She used to tell me about the grape jelly she made using grape Kool Aid. Make the Kool-Aid following the package instructions only without the sugar, then follow the fruit pectin instructions WA-LAH~~grape jelly was made. She couldn't afford the fruit, so she used Kool-Aid. Like I've said, she was VERY ingenious. The spiced jam/jelly was my favorite. Her bread toasted with this on top, with or without butter, was a dessert all in itself as an after school snack. I remember hunting for pennies to buy butter with. It wasn't soft like the butter or margarine you buy today. Mama knew how to make butter and Daddy often milked cows for a friend that lived about 7 miles south of town. The cream would make a rich butter, but it also made the milk rich, so butter being cheaper, 19 cents a pound, she stirred the cream into the milk or used it to make ice cream at times, and bought the butter. One spring Mama sent Jeanie and me to Westside Grocery to buy butter, Mama and Daddy had a tab they paid on paydays, so when money, pennies, couldn't be found, she'd put groceries on a tab. This particular time, we, Jeanie and I, went for something and the store had beautiful starter flower plants, and we thought they looked so pretty, so we thought we'd surprise Mama with a 6 pack of these flowers. But, she was not a happy camper. She told us, she didn't have money for such things, yes they were pretty, but they weren't food and that's what that account was for. Daddy on the other hand, planted them in containers and set them on tree stumps in the front yard. He knew we didn't have money for such things, but he liked pretty also. Pretty brightened his hard world. For Mama, I think unless a flower was on a vegetable, it was a weed. Unless it was a Honeysuckle bush or a Lilac bush, she didn't see the beauty in just a flower that was only "pretty to look at." As far as I can remember we never did it again. Mama didn't do the spanking, although she could if needed, her eyes sparkled with total frustration and irritation if/ when we did, or took it upon ourselves, to make decisions. I don't remember her ever saying, "Wait till your daddy gets home," so she had her way of handling her "teaching" moments.
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This recipe for Spiced Peach Jam is from