Putting Food By - Janet Greene [141]
Yellow Tomato Marmalade
Three ½-pint jars
3¼ cups coarsely chopped, peeled, ripe, yellow plum-type tomatoes
Grated zest of 1 large lemon
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
6 cups sugar
2 pouches liquid pectin (6 ounces)
Place chopped tomatoes in a small pan and set over low heat and cover. Do not add any water. Bring to boiling, reduce heat, and simmer about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and measure out 3 cups of the tomatoes and liquid. In a large kettle, combine the 3 cups tomatoes with the lemon zest, juice, and sugar. Stir over moderate heat until boiling. Boil hard 1 minute. Turn off heat and add pectin. Stir for 5 minutes. Skim as needed. Pack in hot ½-pint jars leaving ¼ inch of headroom. Cap with two-piece screwband lids. Process 5 minutes in a B–W Bath. Cool upright and naturally.
Steps in Making Butters
Butters are nice old-fashioned spreads and they’re good with meats. Their virtues are that they take about ½ as much sugar as jams from the same fruits (½ cup sugar to each 1 cup of fruit pulp), and they can be made with the sound portions of windfall and cull fruits that you’d probably not bother with for jelly or jam. Their one drawback is that they require very long cooking—and careful cooking at that, because they stick and scorch if you turn your back.
Butters are made from most fruits or fruit mixtures. Probably apple is the best-known ingredient, but apricots, crabapples, grapes, peaches, pears, plums, and quinces also make good butters. Note: it is not safe to can pumpkin butter.
TO PREPARE FRUIT
Use prime ripe fruit or good parts of windfalls or culls. Wash thoroughly and prepare as follows:
Apples. Quarter and add ½ as much water or cider (or part water and part cider) as fruit.
Apricots. Pit, crush, add ¼ as much water as fruit.
Crabapples. Quarter, cut out stems and blossom ends, and add ½ as much water as fruit.
Grapes. Remove stems, crush grapes, and cook in own juice.
Peaches. Dip in boiling water to loosen skins; peel, pit, crush, and cook in their own juice.
Pears. Remove stems and blossom ends. Quarter and add ½ as much water as fruit.
Plums. Crush and cook in their own juice. The pits will strain out.
Quinces. Remove stems and blossom ends. Fruit is hard, so cut in small pieces and add ½ as much water as fruit.
MAKING THE PULP
Cook the fruits prepared as above until their pulp is soft. Watch it—it may stick.
Put the cooked fruit through a colander to rid it of the skins and pits, then press the pulp through a food mill or sieve to get out all fibers.
SUGAR AND COOKING
Usually ½ cup of sugar to each 1 cup of fruit pulp makes a fine butter. It’s easiest to cook at one time not more than 4 cups of fruit pulp, plus the added sugar.
Let the sugar dissolve in the pulp over low heat, then bring the mixture to a boil and cook until thick, stirring often to prevent scorching.
When the butter is thick enough to round slightly in a spoon and shows a glossiness or sheen, pack while still hot into hot, sterilized ½-pint or pint canning jars, leaving ½ inch of headroom. Cap with two-piece screwband lids and process the jars in a Boiling–Water Bath (212 F/100 C) for 10 minutes. Cool and store.
Alternative cooking method: butters stick so easily when they are cooking on the stove top that it’s a real chore to keep them from scorching. Some cooks put about ¾ of the hot uncooked purée in a large, uncovered, heat-proof crockery dish or enameled roasting pan and cook it in a 300 F/ 149 C oven until it thickens. As the volume shrinks and there is room in the dish, add the other ¼ of the purée. When the butter is thick but still moist on top, ladle it quickly into containers and process.
OPTIONAL SPICES
Any spices are added