Apricot jam to please the purists

Press, 9 February 1983, Page 18

Apricot jam to please the purists

Alison Hoist’s

Food Facts

Apricot jam seems to be high on the list of favourite jams. Not only is it good on brown bread, toast, scones, and pikelets, but it can be used in baking and is the jam usually specified in recipes where fruit fillings are glazed. To glaze fruit you sieve the jam, heat it until it is runny and brush or spoon it on.

I like to make combination jams based on apricot: apricot with orange juice and grated orange rhind; apricot with raw pineapple and fruit salad jam. But I often have to give in to the loud voices that insist “pure is best.” Apricot jam isn’t one of the cheapest jams to make, but it isn’t as expensive as you may think. Five hundred grams apricots and two cups of sugar make the equivalent of two jars of bought jam.

Each jar of homemade jam, then, will cost 20c for one cup of sugar, plus the price of 250 g (% kilogram) of apricots. It is easy to make 500 g of apricots into jam while you wait for the potatoes to cook, and apricot jam is best made

in small quantities, since larger quantities have a tendency to “catch” on the bottom.

I chose Roxburgh Reds for jam making, because I love their bright colour, but you can use any variety. For preference, choose fruit which is not quite, ripe enough for eating, since your jam will then set better. Halve, then slice 500 g apricots into a large saucepan with ¥2 cup orange juice or the juice of a lemon made up to half a 'cup with water. Boil briskly, uncovered, stirring frequently, until the fruit is soft, then measure its volume, and put it back in the pot with the same volume of sugar, i.e. for two cups of fruit and juice, add two cups sugar. Boil briskly again, stirring to check that the mixture does not catch on the bottom. Start putting teaspoon lots, in a saucer, by an open window after five minutes.

As soon as your sample forms a wrinkled skin when you run your finger across it, bottle ' immediately ’ into cleaned preheated jars and seal while warm.

If you have trouble with

mould growing on top of apricot jam, try. one of the following remedies. Pour a thin layer of melted candle wax or paraffin wax over the -warm or just cold jam, before stretching on the dampened “cellophane” top. Put the jam in empty jars in which jam, pickles, etc., have been bought, which have a soft composition seal inside their metal lid. Put the hot jam in the hot jar and screw on the top which has been preheated in boiling water. You will need a strong wrist to remove the lid. Pour a little brandy or whisky or vodka over the surface of the warm jam before you seal it. For long-term sure storage, use preserving jars and preserving seals. Pour the very hot jam into preheated

jars to smm (¥4 inch). Put on the seal tops which have been boiled for five minutes, and screw the rings on tightly. Remove rings after 24 hours. Plum jam is one of the cheaper jams to make, .especially if you have access to a plum tree. Plum jam sets easily, since plums are high in acid and pectin, so boil the fruitwith a little more water (or orange juice) than you would use for apricot jam. You get jam free from stones and skins if you push the stewed fruit through a colander or sieve before you add the sugar. Measure the pulp and sugar cup for cup, as for apricot jam, and seal well, since plum jam can shrink and go hard and leathery if it is not in airtight containers. .