A couple of years ago, I wrote about how inspired I was by a woman in Oakland, CA who had a little toast and jam business going, turning the front room of a pizza place into a cafe during the morning hours when it's usually closed. That woman's name is Rachel Saunders and since then she's grown her jam business considerably, offering about 100 seasonal flavors a year and expanding into retail markets all over the Bay Area. Amazingly, she also found the time to write a cookbook. So while I was expecting to like this cookbook, I was a little surprised by how much I really, really like it. Read on for my review and for a great tip on how to can your jam without boiling up a big pot of water!
Title & Publisher: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook, by Rachel Saunders with photographs by Sara Remington. Published by Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2010.
First impressions: Wow. This is a BIG book, weighing in at 372 pages. It's a hard cover, with a nice matte textured dust jacket and a sturdy sewn binding that helps the pages to stay flat when opened. The book is divided into three main sections, with bibliography, sources and an index in the end.
There's a very extensive introduction section that tells the story of Blue Chair Fruit and offers excellent definitions of the words 'jam', 'jelly' and 'marmalade.' Also very interesting is a section on fruit which covers such topics as seasonality, ripeness, sweetness and sourness/bitterness, texture, and perfume.
Finally there's several pages on preserving itself, with an emphasis on process and equipment. What really makes this shine are Sara Remington's photographs that show the several stages a pot of jam goes through as it cooks down. This is done for both low-sugar and high-sugar jams as well as marmalades. Another bonus is Ms. Saunders method for testing doneness, which involves placing several spoons in the freezer and using them to cool off a small amount of jam to check for firmness and texture.
Number of recipes: About 120, fittingly arranged by season. From deep winter offerings of bergamot and grapefruit to the splendid glut in high summer and on to the quince and cranberry of autumn, this book sings with the sensuous pleasure of ripe, luscious fruit. The book ends with an alphabetical listing of fruits, explaining their season, varietals and good pairings.
Great Tip: Don't mess with large vats of boiling water to preserve your jams, jellies and marmalades! Simple heat the jars and lids in a 250 oven for 30 minutes, remove, fill and cap, and return to the oven for another 15 minutes. Voilà!
Recipes for right now: Elderberry-Orange Marmalade, Pear Jam with Rosemary & Pine, Citron Shred, Cranberry-Orange Marmalade, Italian Prune & Cardamom Conserve
Recommended? Oh yes! This book is in my top five for holiday gift giving this year. I can see pairing it with a set of pretty canning jars or, if your pockets are deep enough, one of the gorgeous all-copper kettles Ms. Saunders recommends for jam cooking. But I'm definitely, greedily keeping a copy for myself. I know this is just the push I need to experiment with marmalades this winter ... and strawberry-kumquat jam this spring ... oh, and it's for sure going to be a better summer for Bleinheim apricots next year ... but meanwhile, that Quince and Candied Ginger Jam recipe cannot be ignored much longer!
• Buy the book: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, $22.15 (Amazon)
• For more information about Blue Chair Fruit Company, check out their website or this video clip of the adorable Ms. Saunders' visit to The Martha Stewart Show.
More 2010 Book Reviews
• Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce
• In the Green Kitchen by Alice Waters
• In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite by Melissa Clark
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Mind = blown on the oven canning method.
OK, food scientists, would this be safe to try with other water bath canned foods?
Great question PikaPikaChick. A little internet research says it is a safe method, although I would like to know more of the exact science behind it.
One tip that did come up is this works for hot-pack method only, as adding cool or cold food to the hot jars might cause them to burst. Also mentioned is to put the jars in a cold oven and let them heat up with the oven as opposed to put the cool/cold jars into the already hot oven.
Rachel's times are longer and her temperatures are a little higher than other recommendations (225° oven vs 250° oven and 10 minutes vs 30 minutes.) Since she produces her jams and marmalades for commercial use and resale using this method, and since I tend to lean more on the cautious side when it comes to canning, I'm going with Rachel's higher numbers.
I thought the water bath served in part to force the air out of the jars--that's why you only seal them finger-tip tight and keep a rack beneath them. Can an oven do the same?
i saw the author on the martha stewart show a few weeks back when i was on vacation, and those copper pots ARE gorgeous.
Oven canning is actually an old-fashioned technique; it was discontinued over time, and is not recommended by the USDA, because it is very difficult to ensure even, consistent heat in the oven over the processing time. (i.e. Boiling water is boiling water and stays at 212 degrees as long as it is boiling).
That said; I'm sure this is reasonably safe for the types of high-acid, high-sugar jams that Rachel makes. For high-acid jams, the water batch processing is really just to insure that jars are sterile and that you get a good vaccuum seal (the acidity in the fruit is what protects the jam from botulism). Probably also safe enough for pickles, but I wouldn't use it for anything that flirts with a higher pH like tomatoes, salsa, etc.
This is how we jar our jam in the UK ie
Warm jars in oven, i never do the lids personally. Then put your jam into the hot jars, my jam usually boils instantly in the glass. let it settle for a bit then then put the lid on whilst the jar is hot.
Invert jar for 30 seconds or so and then leave to cool.
Be careful with the glass jars and sometimes there will be the odd breakage
more here
http://www.fruitexpert.co.uk/CanningAndBottlingFruit.html
Every reputable resource on food preservation in the US says that oven canning is no longer considered safe. I know my friends overseas use all kinds of "unsafe" canning procedures, but it is hard to imagine an author/editor/publisher in this country ignoring so many expert opinions about something as important as food safety.
I tried it with some of my tomatoes last year. BIG FAIL. Over half of them didn't seal properly. I wouldn't recommend it.
so excited about this book. i love going to pizzaiolo in the morning for my toast and jam, now i get to recreate it at home!
Only problem with making jams from Rachel's gorgeous and exhaustive book is that I won't have room on my shelf or in my fridge to purchase them from her at the market!
I wholeheartedly agree with AmySRQ. I am an advanced food safety advisor volunteer with our local university extension office. Unsafe canning techniques will continue to be practiced as long as authors publish books touting them. In order to sell to retail stores, Ms. Saunders should have been required to attend a USDA class. I find it very hard to believe that the USDA would sanction her canning technique.
@Dana V... you can find anything on the internet to support your point of view (or technique in this case). That doesn't mean it is correct. It is necessary to ensure the site is reputable. The best available is: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/
Remember, even if grandma had been doing it for years, that doesn't mean there isn't a better, safer way today. They used to use wax on top of jams too. Most people will acknowledge that method is obsolete. So should be oven canning.