Jam session
It was the day to hand down a family tradition. Robert has been making strawberry-pear jam for many years. We first tasted it in a little restaurant in Nevada City, California and loved it. They didn’t have any jars for sale so Robert came home and invented his own recipe. A year or so ago, our grandson, Spencer, pronounced it “the best jam I’ve ever tasted in my life.”
Spencer and his brother Victor came to visit yesterday. Robert had baked fresh bread in the morning and we needed jam to go on it. The boys helped chop up the strawberries and pears. They set the pot on the stove and Robert poured in the sugar and turned on the heat. They stirred it and watched the candy thermometer climb up slowly.
Spencer took notes and wrote everything down in his cell phone. The boys tested the jam frequently to see if it had thickened to the right stage.
It is a refrigerator jam. It is kept covered in the refrigerator, not sealed in a jar. We eat it up so fast that it would be a big waste of time to go through the sealing process. Spencer took a small bowl home with him. Now he is the official keeper of the jam tradition.
I put up Robert’s recipe for a very similar jam on my blog in August, 2007. Click here and you can use the recipe, but substitute strawberries for the blackberries.
Spencer and his brother Victor came to visit yesterday. Robert had baked fresh bread in the morning and we needed jam to go on it. The boys helped chop up the strawberries and pears. They set the pot on the stove and Robert poured in the sugar and turned on the heat. They stirred it and watched the candy thermometer climb up slowly.
Spencer took notes and wrote everything down in his cell phone. The boys tested the jam frequently to see if it had thickened to the right stage.
It is a refrigerator jam. It is kept covered in the refrigerator, not sealed in a jar. We eat it up so fast that it would be a big waste of time to go through the sealing process. Spencer took a small bowl home with him. Now he is the official keeper of the jam tradition.
I put up Robert’s recipe for a very similar jam on my blog in August, 2007. Click here and you can use the recipe, but substitute strawberries for the blackberries.
posted by Christine Thresh at 3:35 PM
10 Comments:
What a lovely tradition - and a fabulous picture of the generations.
"Keeper of the jam."
I like that.
what fun! I read your hubby's recipes and of your kitchen remodel. aren't you glad you did it yourself! I, too have a Jen-aire and love it. Hubby just found another grill unit at the thrift shop....$4. Now we can really grill for a crowd! I have a griddle for the grill side too and two burners on the other side.
my mouth is watering....
sooo awesome to see young men excited to carry on the tradition of making jam...they all look like they had a great time doing it too :)
What a great post!
joan
Pear/Strawberry sounds wonderful, but I will have to try the Pear/Blackberry since I don't eat strawberries. Guess I'll have to wait a bit until blackberries from USA farmers are available. There are a few other "Robert Recipes" I'd like to try, but bread might be beyond me these days. I'll get a good bakery loaf for my jam. Love, Del-at-home
This looks delicious! My grandmother used to make pear preserves and I still miss them.
These moments last forever;
my son learned to make apricot-pineapple preserves from his grandmother Trudy, and he never stopped creating in the kitchen. Spencer and Victor may have received much more than the jam tradition:the confidence to create food and share it.
What a wonderful tradition! How gorgeous that those men love to make jam. My father in law used to make fantastic sauces, such as tomato, and a version of Worcestershire. It is a shame Gom never inherited the tradition.
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