Of cakes, tradition, and competition

Tomorrow is Phoebe’s birthday, which makes this my second birthday outing as a stepmother.  It gives one Pause.

Blended families are interesting organisms, and particularly interesting are the times when you realise the blend includes two different sets of traditions for every special occasion from Christmas (celebrated on the 24th for ours, celebrated on the 25th for them) to birthday mornings (gentle and loving for them, many fists pounding on the bedroom door while Birthday blasts out of the stereo for ours).

One tradition that My Baby and his babies came with was the birthday cake:  a mildly spiced and fluffy Texas sheet cake that they go on bended knee for.  Made by the girls’ mum.

Now.  To explain my attitude towards this cake, I need to reminisce about my own previous marriage.  My ex-husband’s mother was never known – at least, by her own son – as much of a cook, but one of my ex-husband's favourite foods on the whole damned planet was her cheesecake.  He loved it, and she was generous enough to share her recipe, with annotations, with me.  I made it once, perfected it the second time, and then it occurred to me:  “What the heck am I doing?”  Here was this woman, not at all confident in the kitchen, who made this one thing her son absolutely adored, and I – oh, dauntless professional cook! – was about to take it away from her.  As I said to my husband at the time, “Just because I can cook just about anything, that doesn’t mean I should.”  She was alive and kicking and still able to delight him with her cheesecake, so I stopped making it.  Her recipe is in my hand-written recipe book.  It’s an important part of family history, and my daughter made a cheesecake to her grandmother’s recipe for her father on Father’s Day a few weeks ago.

So it was a given that I was never going to make that sheet cake.  The whole point isn’t, after all, to try to recreate the girls’ usual birthday experiences, but create fresh ones of our own.

And so on to the cake.  That it has to be chocolate is a given, and because of my own roots, its filling is also a given:  dulce de leche.  Some proper chocolate frosting, and that’s it.

Much as I love to bake, I’m not a natural cake baker and like Laurie Colwin, I too like “a cake that takes about four seconds to put together and gives an ambrosial result”.  When I want chocolate cake, nine times out of ten, this is the cake I make.  This, along with The Cake of Deliciousness, is the quickest, easiest cake I know.  No creaming, no beating, no folding in of egg whites.  And the results are light (not fluffy), beautifully moist, with a toothsome crumb and intensely chocolatey flavour that is rare even for many cakes that contain actual chocolate.

That it is so rich and chocolatey is mystifying because this recipe was developed during the Depression (when it was known as Crazy Cake) and so frugally contains no butter, milk, eggs or chocolate, but you would never know.  This is an excellent chocolate cake even if you’re filthy rich and can afford to decorate it with gold leaf and have it served to your girlfriends by Pedro, the fig-leaf-attired houseboy.

Hmmm.  Maybe when Phoebe is a little older.

Almost certain:  this cake will have cracks in the top.  That's the lack of eggs for you.  That's why…

… you flip it upside down.  And any smaller cracks can just be...

… frosted over.  You won't get any complaints.

The Easiest Chocolate Cake I Know

(makes 1 large cake)

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients –

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup cocoa (unsweetened if in the US)

2 tsp. bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

1 tsp. salt

Wet ingredients –

2 cups water

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tbsp. white wine vinegar (see note below if this flummoxes you)

2 tsp. vanilla essence

Method:

1.  Prepare a large cake tin or pan by brushing with Baker's Secret, greasing-and-flouring, or greasing and lining with parchment.  (If you intend serving the cake from the pan, you can just leave the pan as is.)  Preheat oven to 180oC.

2.  Thoroughly combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add wet ingredients, and stir until dry ingredients are moistened.  Pour into prepared tin or pan and bake until cooked when tested.  (Shallow pans will require 30-40 min., deeper ones 45-60min.)  Carefully unmould onto a wire rack to cool.

A note for those of you who may be nervous about the vinegar: here is a crash course in food science. For a cake to rise, it needs an alkali, and an acid. When the alkali and the acid combine, they react with each other, giving off carbon dioxide, and so gas, bubbles, rising cake.  This is the way that all cakes other than yeast cakes rise.  The alkali/acid combination is there in baking powder (already mixed for you), and in recipes that call for baking soda (alkali) and, say, cream of tartar (acid). In this case, you have baking soda (alkali) and vinegar (acid). You won’t be able to taste the vinegar – promise.

Yumbo McGillicutty!

The Best Damned Strawberry Jam You Ever Had - in 15 minutes

The path to the best damned strawberry jam you ever had is easy, with only one rule to remember:  small batches, quickly.  That’s it!  No magic ingredient, no Iron Chef skill, no banging around. 

Waiting for a glut is the worst time to make strawberry jam.  As soon as you increase quantities, cooking time increases, and your window of opportunity to make the queen of all jams slams shut, shaking the frame a little.  Instead of the remarkably fresh flavour of this jam, you’ll have cloying sweetness.  Instead of a glorious ruby red, the jam will be dark and impenetrable.  And instead of gorgeous chunks of candied strawberry on your piece of bread, you’ll just have a smooth mass, since the longer cooking time will break the fruit down.  (If ever you have a glut of strawberries that need to be preserved, I strongly recommend the freezer.  They may lose texture but not flavour, and your options for using them are much wider; you can even make jam from a cup or two of the frozen fruit.)

I’m not a microwave devotee by any means, but I’ll go on the record as saying that this jam is better than anything you could ever make on the stove.  Truly-rooly.  Hand on my heart.  It illustrates the best thing about preserving in the mikey:  freshness and spontaneity.  Have a punnet of strawberries?  Make jam!  One punnet is just enough to make one decent-sized jar, or two smaller ones, in the time it takes for you to have a cup of tea, and indeed, you can sip your tea as you work.  

So you can make a jar.  Make one often.  And you’ll thereafter wonder what the heck that stuff on the supermarket shelves is.  And presented with even the most expensive commercial “gourmet” jam, oh, how you’ll scoff.

Local winter strawberries: they weren't ever going to be good eating - at least, not without some serious doctoring - but they make a jam that is far greater than the sum of its parts.

No, put the spoon and the clotted cream down, you can't eat them yet.

The bigger the bowl the better, and if it's bigger than this, great.  Seriously.  As big as will fit in your microwave, no matter how small the batch of jam is.  The reason why is visible on the sides of this bowl.

These viscous bubbles, along with the spoon test and…

… the saucer test, means that…

… the jam is ready to pot up.

Yumbo McGillicutty!

THE BEST DAMNED STRAWBERRY JAM YOU EVER HAD

(makes 1 medium or 2 small jars)

Ingredients:

250g. strawberries (2 cups approx.)

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 tbsp. lemon juice

What you do:

1.  Hull strawberries and cut any extra-large ones in half.  Put them in a large microwave-safe bowl with sugar and lemon juice.  Cover, and cook on HIGH for 5 minutes.  Stir to dissolve sugar.

2.  Cook, uncovered, on HIGH for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until jam reaches setting point.  Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes, then give jam a final stir (this step is optional, but allows the pieces of fruit to be evenly distributed through the jam).  Pour into warm, sterilised jars, and seal.

Posh pudding

Chocolat Liégeois is hot chocolate, French style, ie. totally, completely, over the top.  Hot chocolate, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, Chantilly cream over the top.  But wait, there’s more if you so desire.  Chocolate sauce drizzled over?  Chocolate sprinkles?  Oh, why the heck not.

But the country that invented the term trompe l’oeil also invented another  Chocolat Liégeois:  a creamy dessert served in gorgeous coffee cups, goblets or milkshake glasses to look – quelle surprise! – like the hot chocolate bevvie. 

Chocolat Liégeois is, hands down, my favourite chocolate “spoon sweet”.  Chocolate mousse?  Pffft.  Forget it.  All it will take is one spoonful to see that this is soul food at its most seductive.  The silky and rich chocolate layer may be called Crème Viennoise, but the rest of us will recognise it for the rather posh version of chocolate blancmange or (in the US) chocolate pudding it is.  Denser and creamier, it pushes all the right buttons for We Who Love Chocolate and relegates mousse to the “yummy but wimpy” corner where it belongs.

It is also the easiest thing in the world to make, and it is nice and adaptable:  you can fiddle with the fat of the milk, add additional flavours, and play with the chocolate.  For my friend Stella’s 40th birthday, I made a couple hundred shot glasses of Chocolat Liégeois, half with dark chocolate, half with white.  White chocolate is not my cup of tea (or Chocolat Liégeois, come to that), but they were both yummed up – no leftovers whatsoever.

Chocolat Liégeois

(Makes 6 chocoholic servings.  You’ll see from my pix that I made these in shot glasses: the amount below is enough for about 30 shots.)

The egg yolks are optional, but I strongly advise you use them:  they give additional silkiness.

Les ingrédients:

For the Crème Viennoise –

1 l. milk

4 tbsp. cornflour (cornstarch)

2 tbsp. sugar

300g. dark cooking chocolate, chopped

3 egg yolks

For the Chantilly cream –

300ml thickened cream

3 tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp. vanilla essence

La méthode:

1. To make Crème Viennoise: whisk together milk, cornflour and sugar in a saucepan, and stir constantly over medium heat until mixture simmers and thickens.  (You probably already know this, but it bears repeating:  cornflour/cornstarch mixtures MUST come to the boil.  Don’t fear lumps or curdling, just keep stirring.  If you don’t, you won’t get the proper texture, and to add insult to injury, will have a floury-tasting mixture.)

2. Remove mixture from heat.  Add chocolate, and stir constantly until it melts.  Lightly whisk egg yolks, then add a few tablespoons of the hot mixture, stir, and add to the pan.  Return saucepan to a low heat, stirring constantly, for about a minute or until mixture coats the back of the spoon.  Working quickly, pour chocolate mixture into six goblets or clear coffee cups, or just ordinary coffee cups if you want to give your guests a nice surprise when you bring out the “coffee”. Place in refrigerator to cool completely.

3. Chantilly cream: combine all ingredients, then beat with electric beaters until firm peaks form. Pipe into pretty swirls onto the Crème Viennoise.

Et voilá, c’est prêt! Très facile et très miam! Bon appétit!

The preserve, jam, marmalade and jelly tutorial #3: preserving in the microwave

Maybe what’s been putting you off making preserves is lack of time along with a belief that you need a bumper crop to go ahead.  If so, let me reacquaint you with that television-shaped appliance on the bench.

Ladies and Gentlemen:  the microwave.

Beyond heating up leftovers and dissolving gelatine, a microwave oven comes into its own when you use it to make preserves.  The brief cooking times mean that microwave preserves have the freshest, liveliest taste of any preserve you are likely to taste.

You don’t have to wait for a bumper crop:  in fact, it is best to make small quantities, since larger quantities would necessitate longer cooking times and spoil the fresh-flavour bonus that you are after from the mikey.  With the mikey, you can make your preserves for the week by just using what you may have lying around the house:  an orange and a lemon will make a jar of marmalade, and a tin of peaches can be transformed into jam, relish or chutney in the twinkling of an eye.

Get into the habit of preserving, roping in children and spouses as necessary.  If you incorporate it into your routine, you'll find that less and less fruit and vegetables will go to waste; you'll save money; and you'll always have a spur-of-the-moment gift when you go visiting or need to say “thank you”.

What you'll need:

1.  A large, microwave-proof casserole.  (Use a large casserole, preferably with straight sides, even when making a very small amount.  As preserves cook in the microwave, they begin to rise up and up like prisoners bent on escape; if the casserole isn't big enough, it will spill.)

2.  A wooden spoon.

3.  Clean, sterilized jars or glasses, free of any chips or imperfections, with their own lids, or Vacola Kleer-view covers. 

Adapting recipes

When adapting a conventional recipe for the mikey, the first thing is to reduce the water when cooking the fruit.  The minimum amount of water is a couple of tablespoons (for berries), and the maximum should be enough to cover the fruit (marmalades).  If you follow the step-by-step instructions, comparing sugar and fruit ratios as in Tutorial #2 and making the necessary adjustments, you should have no trouble.  To use tinned or bottled fruit, follow guides below without the steps that involve cooking the fruit.

STEP-BY-STEP JAM AND CONSERVE

1.  Prepare fruit by cutting away any blemishes.  If necessary, peel, pit, or de-seed.  Cut into pieces (small for jam, large chunks for conserve).

2.  Add lemon juice or citric acid if needed (see Tutorial #2).

3.  Add water.

4.  Place in a large, microwave-proof bowl or casserole, and cover.  Cook on HIGH until soft and pulpy.

5.  Measure fruit pulp, and re-heat to boiling.

6.  Add required amount of sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved.  Add any spices or flavourings you may desire.

7.  Cook, uncovered, on HIGH, until setting point is reached (15-20 min).

8.  Skim off any scum, and fill warm, sterilized jars to the brim.  Fit lids on IMMEDIATELY.  Label, and store in a cool, dark place.

STEP-BY-STEP MARMALADE

1.  Wash fruit, slice thinly.  Cover with water, and let stand overnight, or for several hours.

2.  Place fruit and water in large microwave bowl or casserole, cover, and cook on HIGH until rind is tender (6-10 min.).

3.  Measure pulp, then reheat to boiling.  (If you would like less rind, strain out as much as you need to before measuring.)

4.  Add required amount of sugar.  Stir to dissolve.

5.  Cook, uncovered, on HIGH until setting point is reached (15-20 min.).

6.  Skim off any scum, and fill warm, sterilized jars to the brim.  Fit lids on IMMEDIATELY.  Label, and store in a cool, dark place.

STEP-BY-STEP JELLY

1.  Wash fruit and chop roughly, leaving on skins, cores, pips, etc.

2.  Place in large microwave bowl or casserole, and cover with water.

3.  Cover, and cook on HIGH until soft and pulpy (6-8 min.).

4.  Pour into jelly bag, or fine strainer lined with a clean, wet Chux, and let stand overnight (or several hours, at least).  Do not press or squeeze fruit, as this will cloud the jelly.

5.  Measure liquid.

6.  Heat liquid on HIGH until boiling, then add required amount of sugar.  Stir to dissolve.

7.  Cook, uncovered, on HIGH until setting point is reached (15-20 min.).

8.  Skim off any scum, and fill warm, sterilized jars to the brim.  Fit lids on IMMEDIATELY.  Label, and store in a cool, dark place.

STEP-BY-STEP CHUTNEY AND RELISH

1.  Prepare fruit and vegetables, as required.

2.  Add remaining ingredients except sugar and vinegar.

4.  Cook, covered, on HIGH until fruit/vegetables are tender (8-10 min).

5.  Add sugar, and stir until dissolved.

6.  Add vinegar.

7.  Cook, uncovered, until thick (20-25 min.).

The preserve, jam, marmalade and jelly tutorial #2: set

Perfect set passes the upside-down test!

Most good jams or jellies have good “set”:  a gelled consistency with a slightly firm texture and resistance to the spoon.  Set is achieved with pectin and sugar.  A properly set preserve isn’t just a delight to eat, but it also means that it is safe to keep, unrefrigerated (before the seal is broken, natch) for a long time – we’re not talking weeks or months, but years.  This is because pectin and sugar “bind” the fruit’s juices, preventing them from spoiling.

Set is what sets apart, so to speak, the great preservers from the wannabe’s.  A preserve that’s been properly cooked to setting point will have great texture, a mellow, complex flavour, and beautiful jewelled colour.  Set will also ensure that whoever eats it won’t keel over from a bout of food poisoning.

Now – I did say that “most” good jams or jellies have good set.  Some don’t, because the fruit they are made from is too low in pectin; a loquat jelly, for example, will have a super-light set.  If you’ve made it properly, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad preserve, just that you need to use it quickly and refrigerate it once opened.   

Let’s look at pectin and sugar in turn, and then talk about how to test for set.

 PECTIN

Pectin is an acidic fruit fibre.  All jams, jellies, conserves and marmalades need pectin to set.  Not all fruits contain this in significant amounts, so you need to fix the balance by adding lemon juice, citric acid, or “insurance” in the form of an apple or two.  (Apples – even ordinary table apples – are high in pectin and will ensure the set of just about anything you’re potting up.  Because they break down easily and their flavour is so mild, they are virtually undetectable in preserves with another key flavour.)

You can also add commercial pectin (Jamsetta here in Australia), but I personally do not recommend this. It makes the end product too tart, and does not allow for the mellow flavour of a well-made conserve to come through.  It can also absolutely wreck the texture of your preserve.  Don’t be fooled into thinking you need pectin just because you see it in 99% of the preserves – even posh preserves – that you buy.  Commercial manufacturers add pectin because it means they can arrest cooking earlier, which gives them a higher yield and profit.

A list of the pectin content of fruits follows.  If you are making your jam/marmalade/jelly/conserve from sweet, overripe fruits, or those low in pectin, add one of the following:

1.  2 tbsp. lemon juice per 4 cups fruit.

2.  1 tsp. citric acid per 4 cups of fruit.

3.  Commercial pectin, as per manufacturers' instructions.  (But please – learn to make preserves without it first!)

FRUITS HIGH IN PECTIN:

Cooking apples

Crabapples

Quinces

Raspberries

All citrus fruits

FRUITS MEDIUM IN PECTIN:

Apricots

Blackberries

Under-Ripe Cherries

Loganberries

Greengages

Ripe Plums

Pineapple

Rhubarb.

FRUITS LOW IN PECTIN:

Bananas

Ripe cherries

Figs

Grapes

Peaches

Pears

Strawberries

HOW MUCH SUGAR?

Don't guess.  Not enough sugar will lead to spoilage or food poisoning, and too much will ruin the flavour and texture of the preserve.

Sugar Ratios for High and Medium Pectin Fruits (conserves, marmalades and jams)

FRUIT PULP	SUGAR
1 cups	1 cup
2 cups	2 cups
3 cups	3 cups
4 cups	4 cups
5 cups	5 cups
6 cups	6 cups
7 cups	7 cups

Sugar Ratios for Low Pectin Fruits (conserves, marmalades and jams)

FRUIT PULP	SUGAR
2 cups	1 1/2 cup
3 cups	2 1/4 cups
4 cups	3 cups
5 cups	3 3/4 cups
6 cups	4 1/2 cups
7 cups	5 1/4 cups
8 cups	6 cups

Sugar Ratios for Jellies

LIQUID	SUGAR
1 cup	3/4 cup
2 cups	1 1/2 cup
3 cups	2 1/4 cups
4 cups	3 cups
5 cups	3 3/4 cups
6 cups	4 1/2 cups
7 cups	5 1/4 cups

NOTE:  you’re probably thinking, “That’s a lotta sugar!”  Well, yes.  This is how preserves are made.  If you want to lower the amount of sugar, understand that you won’t get a set, and will probably have to freeze your preserve or store in the fridge.  Alternatively, you can also add pectin to get that set, but it won’t be the same.     

TESTING FOR SETTING POINT

The absolute one worst thing you can do is to judge whether a preserve is ready is to look at its colour.  Many people think that if it looks the colour of commercial jam, it must be ready, but of course it isn’t:  as you now know, the cooking of commercial preserves is arrested much earlier with the addition of pectin.  You’re going to be cooking it longer than this, because if you don’t, it could spoil, or lead to food poisoning (even if it looks, smells, and tastes okay).

Your best allies when judging whether setting point has been reached are the pot, the spoon, and the saucer.  These things are used in conjunction:  although the saucer is pretty much foolproof, it’s better to never test for set using just one of these methods.  Optional:  if you are super-duper nervous about using such low-fi equipment, you can also use a sugar/fat thermometer.

The pot:

Most jams, conserves and marmalades will have a dense layer of bubbles on the surface when they reach setting point.  Jellies tend to acquire a slight skin, and when you move the pot from side to side the liquid moves viscously and sensuously.

The spoon:

You will also know your jam, conserve and marmalade is ready by the way it falls from the wooden spoon:  it falls in flakes or large drops rather than pouring off.

The saucer:

While preserve is cooking, put a saucer in the fridge or freezer.  When you have cooked your jam for the minimum time, spoon a little onto the saucer.  Pop it back into the fridge or freezer.  When it has cooled completely, push it with your finger.  If it wrinkles, and leaves a clear path where your finger has been, then it's ready. 

Optional:  the thermometer:

Every good cook’s home should have a fat/sugar thermometer.  Even though I never use a fat/sugar thermometer for preserving, it comes in handy if you’re new at this and are nervous about getting set right.  Setting point is at 107o-110oC/220oF.

A NOTE ABOUT “PROCESSING”:  many recipes, particularly those from the US, specify “processing”, or vacuum sealing, jams, conserves, and marmalades in a boiling water bath.  While recipes may specify that this ensures the longest possible keeping time, I have never found this to be necessary.  (Plus, I don’t like the idea of cooking further and losing the fresh flavour.)  In about 30 years of preserving, I have never had problems with preserves not keeping, when the seal is unbroken, for years.  If the processing step is what’s been keeping you from making your own preserves because it’s too much hassle, just omit it:  make the preserve, eat the preserve.  Simple.

The preserve, jam, marmalade and jelly tutorial #1: the basics

I was lucky, nay, blessed to be able to stay at home and raise children while writing.  Some of the days that gave me most satisfaction were the ones I played Happy Hausfrau and made my own preserves.  I was a mad preserver, in the early days even bottling my own fruit, but mostly it was “putting up” the bountiful produce from the country town we lived in, in the form of jams, jellies, marmalades, relishes and chutneys.  Preserving is, hands down, my favourite thing to do in the kitchen, and after a busy day simmering and potting I’d line up my jars on the windowsill and admire the light streaming through the jewel tones of this quotidian leadlight.  Satisfying.

 Those days are gone.  Not only do I work outside the home now, I actually have three jobs.  Many things have gone out the window - including my youngest child, now a latchkey kid who has forgotten his key on occasion - but preserving isn’t one of them.

Why?  After all, making your own jams, jellies, marmalades and chutneys isn't necessary any more, as it was once upon a time.  But it isn’t something you do because you NEED to do, it’s something you do because it ISN’T.  Because slowing down and taking the time to do something completely unnecessary is a luxury many of us can actually benefit enormously from.  You have taken the time to do this, to meditatively chop, weigh, and stir.  To make a statement to yourself and the world that your time in the kitchen isn’t just about getting dinner on the table in 10 minutes.  It’s about drawing people to the hub of the home with sweet smells and mysterious sounds.  It’s about being playful, and yes, showing off.  It's about stewardship in a time when it is becoming increasingly important to value and use our resources. 

Besides.  Homemade preserves taste so damned good.

Commercial brands - even posh commercial brands - may boast chunky bits of fruit or good flavour, but they can in no way compare with the real, homemade thing.  (And yes, Maggie Beer, I’m looking at you and your pathetic quince paste.)

Over the next few entries I’m going to take you through the basics of making preserves, jams, marmalades and jellies, as well as making time.  Got your wooden spoon?  Let’s go!

  

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

*  A preserving pan.  This can be your pasta pot, or it can be a specialised preserving pan - it doesn’t matter.  What does matter, however, is that if you see a gorgeous copper pot you think can be used for preserving, you be sure it’s meant for preserving purposes.  Untreated copper can react with fruit and ruin it.

*  A long wooden spoon.  Just one will do.  But make it long, because some thicker preserves are like molten lava, and the last thing you want is any of it on your skin.

*  A saucer.  This is to test for setting point (more on this in Tutorial #2).

*  A supply of jars with lids, or old glasses and covers.  The best jars, I reckon, are the ones with metal lids that have a plastic coating on the inside:  non-reactive, and boy do they do an airtight seal.  When I run out of jars, I use glasses - usually the odd glasses left over from old sets we’ve slowly gone through - and Vacola Kleerview Jar Covers.  No preserver’s home should ever be without at least one packet of Kleerviews.  (Before Kleerview covers there was greaseproof paper dipped in eggwhite.  You can try this if you like, but it’s just one step too many for me these days.)

STERILISING AND WARMING THE JARS

Your preserves need to go into hot, sterilised jars.  No arguments.  It is a bane, but absolutely necessary.  The best, easiest, and quickest method is in the microwave, but the conventional one is to:

1.  Place jars in large pot with cold water to cover, and bring to the boil.  Simmer for 15 min.  Carefully pull jars out of water.

2.  Place jars in a low oven to dry out completely, and to keep warm  (NEVER put hot preserves into cold jars).

STEP-BY-STEP JAM AND CONSERVE

1.  Prepare fruit by cutting away any blemishes.  If necessary, peel, pit, or de-seed.  Unless you’re using berries, cut into pieces (small for jam, large chunks for conserve).

2.  Add lemon juice or citric acid if needed (see Tutorial #2).

3.  Add water.  You need barely enough to cook the fruit - for example, a couple of tablespoons for a large amount of berries (small amounts of berries may need none) to a cup or two for larger quantities of other fruit.  In any case, don’t go overboard!

4.  Simmer until fruit is soft and pulpy.

5.  Measure fruit pulp, and re-heat to boiling.

6.  Add required amount of sugar (see Tutorial #2).  Stir until sugar is dissolved.  Add any spices or flavourings you may desire.

7.  Cook, uncovered, at a fast boil, until setting point is reached (15-20 min).

8.  Skim off any scum, and fill warm, sterilized jars to the brim.  If preserve has lots of big chunks, allow it to cool for 10-15, give it a stir, and then turn into jars; this will ensure that fruit is evenly distributed through the preserve.  Fit lids on IMMEDIATELY.  Label, and store in a cool, dark place.

STEP-BY-STEP MARMALADE

1.  Wash fruit, slice thinly.  Cover with water, and let stand overnight, or for several hours.

2.  Place fruit and water in preserving pan, and simmer until rind is tender (1 hour approx).

3.  Measure pulp, then reheat to boiling.  (If you’re a wimpy sissy person who would like less rind, strain out as much as you need to before measuring.)

4.  Add required amount of sugar.  Stir to dissolve.

5.  Cook, uncovered, at a fast boil, until setting point is reached (15-20 min).

6.  Skim off any scum, and fill warm, sterilized jars to the brim.  If preserve has lots of big chunks, allow it to cool for 10-15, give it a stir, and then turn into jars; this will ensure that fruit is evenly distributed through the preserve.  Fit lids on IMMEDIATELY.  Label, and store in a cool, dark place.

STEP-BY-STEP JELLY

1.  Wash fruit and chop roughly, leaving on skins, cores, pips, etc.

2.  Place in large preserving pan, and cover with water.

3.  Simmer until soft and pulpy (1 hour approx.).

4.  Pour into jelly bag, or fine strainer lined with a clean, wet Chux, and let stand overnight (or several hours, at least).  Do not press or squeeze fruit, as this will cloud the jelly.

5.  Measure liquid.

6.  Heat liquid over high heat until boiling, then add 3/4 cup sugar per measured cup of liquid.  Stir to dissolve.

7.  Cook, uncovered, at a fast boil, until setting point is reached.

8.  Skim off any scum, and fill warm, sterilized jars to the brim.  Fit lids on IMMEDIATELY.  Label, and store in a cool, dark place.