Slaving Over a Hot Stove

I spent most of Saturday slaving over a hot stove, and much of Saturday evening cleaning up from the mess I made after a day of canning. Based on the state of my kitchen you might think I made about twenty things when in fact I made two. I made a batch of the tomato jam I love, and tried something new, a roasted peach butter, made with a mix of white and yellow peaches. No matter how many times I do this I am always disappointed with the volume of my yield, but ecstatic with the finished product.

I’ve made this tomato jam about four times, it is a recipe from Food in Jars, which is a book as well as a blog, though the recipe comes from the book. Each time I make it I use more tomatoes and fiddle with the amount of crushed red pepper. I have made it with Roma tomatoes, in fact for the best batch I’ve ever made I used an heirloom variety of stripey Romas I got at the Headhouse Square farmers’ market. This time I used some tomatoes I bought at a farm, and supplemented with some from another local farmers’ market. The tomatoes were large, juicy and fragrant, which all sounds great, but when you are making tomato jam that juiciness equates to longer cooking time, and lower yield.

Eight pounds of tomatoes gave me four pints of thick jam, and I foresee making at least one more batch before the end of the season. I love sharing it, and we need our own to get us through the winter. We eat it on crackers with creamy cheeses, on corn fritters, scones, biscuits, toast with avocado and I like it on chicken and lamb. I think I will bring a jar to my sister’s house to have with out Thanksgiving dinner, it will be better than cranberry sauce (this may cause some debate).

The peach butter was a vastly different process, and one I felt less compelled to be tied to the recipe to make. My jumping off point was again Food in Jars, and basically what I used was her technique of roasting the peaches. I had some OK, but not great white peaches which made up about half the weight of peaches, the other half was hail-damaged peaches that were ugly and a great buy at the Rittenhouse Farmers’ Market. When I’m planning on canning I generally go to the markets near the end of the day and ask for culls; the stuff that’s gotten bruised and people won’t buy. You can usually get culls for half price, but you need to ask for them. If you get more than you can use, bag them up and freeze them for later use.

I am not someone who needs my kitchen to be immaculate before I go to bed, which is good if you spend the day canning. I did get most of the dishes washed, but a good part of Sunday afternoon went into getting everything put away and stored. Canning leaves me with the same feeling of accomplishment that ironing does. You finish your work, and then you have something to admire for your efforts. Pies can do that for me too in a way that a lot of cooking doesn’t. Most things get made and consumed almost immediately, but with canning I have jewel-like jars filled with goodness looking gorgeous and waiting for me. They will remain pretty reminders of a day spent slaving over a hot stove, for the coming months; savored slowly and appreciatively.

Are you planning on canning this summer? If so what will you be making?