The Making of Apricot Jam

My parents have a number of fruit trees. Right now one of the apricot trees is in season, so I ended up getting about 50 pounds of apricots last week. A few years ago I tried making apricot pie. It didn't turn out very well, and I didn't really feel like making another attempt right now. (I actually haven't made a pie in almost 2 months—I think that might be a record.)

So yesterday my roommate Nelson and I made jam out of all the apricots. It took us about 6 hours including pitting all the fruit and cleaning up afterwards. I think we made 10 batches, giving us a total of 33 pint jars plus an extra quart of jam in a container and another 2 quarts of freezer jam. Here're the finished jars:
I've never made jam before; it was a fun experience. Everything certainly does get sticky. And I really mean everything: you, the counters, all the utensils, the floor, the hot pads and gloves, the cabinets (even inside of them), and every other exposed surface. I think the top of our microwave was even sticky, and we didn't even use the microwave. Nelson definitely came out the most scarred and damaged, primarily from stirring each batch as it boiled violently at scorching temperatures, spitting hot jam in all directions.

Almost every batch was different. We had 4 recipes that differed from each other significantly and we used different types of pectin and different procedures with each of the recipes. We also made a couple of unusual batches: apricot raspberry jam and strawberry rhubarb jam (which also came from my parents' garden). When we got all done we sampled each of the major kinds to determine which was best.

Every one of the types of jam we sampled was really good. The difference in flavor and texture between them was really quite subtle. Every recipe emphasized the extreme importance of being perfectly precise with the ingredients and procedures, threatening that the jam wouldn't set or the jars wouldn't seal if you deviated. In contrast, the recipes together spanned quite an array of ratios, quantities, and methods. And the resulting jams were all very close to the same and every one of them set. It makes me wonder how important all the precision in jam really is.

We tried both liquid and powdered pectins. There was a difference in the procedure for the two, but the final products were not very different based only on the pectin. The liquid pectin recipes certainly yielded less per package, but they were slightly cheaper, so it might work out to be about the same costwise per jar of jam.

Between the subtly different jams, it was pretty unanimous among my roommates that the best apricot jam was the one with the (by far) least amount of lemon juice, and proportionately somewhat less sugar. It came from a SureJell Pectin package:

Combine the following in a large saucepan:
     5 cups diced apricots
     ¼ cup lemon juice
     1 package SureJell Pectin
Bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Quickly stir in:
     7 cups sugar
Boil for 1 minute. Pour into jars and process.

This gives the following ratio of ingredients (expressed in three ways; unitless because it is simply a ratio):

1 apricots : 0.2 lemon juice : 1.4 sugar
20 apricots : 1 lemon juice : 28 sugar
0.71 apricots : 0.14 lemon juice : 1 sugar

The apricot raspberry jam was by far the best one. We mixed half a recipe of apricot jam and half a recipe of raspberry jam. Haven't tried the strawberry rhubarb jam yet so I can't report on how well that turned out.

We used the "turn the jars up-side-down to seal them" method instead of processing the jars in a canner, which worked really well and was really easy: all we did was fill the hot jars with the boiling jam, put the boiled lids on, and immediately turned the jars up-side-down for 5 minutes. Then we stood them upright and they sealed after a little while of cooling. Every one of our jars sealed—even the ones that were only half full.

Overall, it was quite fun and very worth it. I'm glad Nelson had the idea to do it.

Coconut Bread

I've been asked for this recipe a number of times, so I'm going to post it here. It is certainly among the very best of all the quick breads that I have made. It is very sweet and has a very intense and absolutely delicious coconut flavor. It's the kind of bread you can just eat and eat.

Coconut Bread

Beat in a large bowl:
     4 eggs
Add and blend well:
     1 cup oil
     2 cups sugar
     2 teaspoons coconut flavoring
Separately, sift together:
     3 cups flour
     ½ teaspoon salt
     ½ teaspoon baking soda
     ½ teaspoon baking powder
Beating well after each addition, add sifted dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with:
     1 cup buttermilk or soured milk
     1 cup coconut
     (1 cup nuts)
Pour into greased and floured 10” tube pan and bake at 325° F for 1¼ hours or until a toothpick comes out clean.

When the bread is nearly done, boil for 5 minutes:
     1 cup sugar
     ½ cup water
     2 tablespoons butter
Remove from heat and add:
     1 teaspoon coconut flavoring
Pour the hot syrup over the warm bread and let stand 4 hours before removing from pan.

I don't have a bundt pan, so I typically use 5 or 6 small (5¾" x 3") loaf pans and decrease the cooking time accordingly (I haven't timed it—I just use a toothpick). I think there might be just a little too much batter to fit in a large (10") loaf pan, though I haven't tried it.

I also have a PDF version available for download here.

As always with recipes, I'm always looking for the best ones and asking people to be really critical of my baking. So if you know of a comparable or better Coconut Bread recipe I'd like to hear about it. Also, after you use this recipe then let me know what you think.

Enjoy.

Update: I discovered there was a typo in this recipe. I have corrected it now, but if you downloaded the PDF or copied off the above recipe before today (Monday 6 July at 1:00 PM) then you should redownload it. It used to call for 2 tablespoons of coconut flavoring instead of the correct amount of 2 teaspoons.

The Complicated Task of Hard Boiling Eggs

I realize that I'm posting a lot about eggs and cooking, but I can't help but mention this.

As I was perusing my new Joy of Cooking yesterday, I came across the fact that the method for hard boiling eggs that the new version recommends is different from the method that the old version recommended and different from any method I've tried myself. Last night my roommates wanted me to teach them how to hard boil eggs, so I decided to try the new method out.

I think many people consider hard boiling eggs to be a trivial kitchen endeavor requiring no skill or precision. I've thought so myself. However, many people use very different techniques. The hard boiled eggs last night were significantly better tasting than most that I have had in my life. So I think there's more to hard boiling eggs than first meets the eye, and I think that it's worth the extra effort to make them perfectly.

So here's the new recipe from the Joy of Cooking website:

Place in a pot in a single layer:
    Unshelled eggs
Cover them by 1 inch with:
    Cold water
Put the pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Promptly remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let the eggs stand: 15 minutes for large eggs, 12 minutes for small and medium eggs, 18 minutes for extra-large and jumbo eggs. Eggs that are not room temperature will require an additional 2 minutes. When cooking is complete, run cold water over eggs to stop cooking.

The Joy of Cooking also recommended poking a hole through the end of the eggshell with a pin to prevent the eggs from breaking. I did so and didn't have any break (though I don't usually). The eggs last night were done all the way through and they seemed more moist and had better flavor than normal. I think I'm very accustomed to eating inferior, overcooked hard boiled eggs. When they are not overcooked they are pretty amazingly delectable.