Go Find Peach Jelly Recipe

A passion for homemade jams

By LISA KAAKI, LISA.KAAKI@ARABNEWS.COM

Published: Jul 13, 2011 07:26 Updated: Jul 13, 2011 07:26

I never thought I would find homemade jams in Riyadh, until I met Umm Talal. A chemist by profession, makes some of the best jams I have ever tasted. I wondered if her background in chemistry had given her a taste for cooking, or in other words, food chemistry. Umm Talal immediately dismissed the thought.

“I think creativity is the biggest influence in my background," she said. "I am reliant on memory of flavors and possibly the knowledge of flavors to bring a pleasing marriage of tastes to the palate where it becomes a creation. Chemistry is only to understand what and how it is happening when you combine certain elements, also the precision of weights. If the precision is not there the end result falters and you have let yourself down, which sometimes cannot be rectified”.

Before I go any further, I should add that Umm Talal not only makes jam (where the fruit is broken down during the cooking process before sugar is added) but also jelly. Her list of jams includes plum, spiced plum and pistachio, carrot, greengage, and plum and cinnamon.    

Only fruits rich in pectin are suitable for making jellies, fruits such as red currants, mulberries, quinces, bilberries, apples and citrus. In the case of citrus, apples and quinces, the prepared fruit is pre-soaked with the cores and seeds collected in a knotted piece of muslin or cheesecloth and then blanched. The liquid obtained is then put through a very fine strainer and sugar, equal to the weight of the juice obtained, is added to the juice.

Umm Talal’s list of jellies includes: Red orange, apple, white grape, crabapple and, my favorite, quince with rose. Umm Talal also makes preserves with a variety of fruits: apricot, pineapple, strawberry, mango, clementine, melon and mango, apple, pear and ginger and the subtle apple and lemon flower, which has a citrus-like yet sweet flavor.

Preserves are usually made with soft fruits which are prepared then macerated in the appropriate quantity of sugar and left to stand for at least 12 to 24 hours. This draws the juices out and hardens the surface of soft fruit so that the end product has whole or large pieces of fruit in a set-jellied-medium.

“All sweet preserves depend on the freshest fruit, sugar and also, a particular balance to each fruit of acid and a natural  substance pectin. Pectin is present in high, medium or low amounts depending on the fruit. This precise balance will then permit the jam to set as it cools. The essential ingredient for this magic setting point to be achieved, is the pectin” explained Umm Talal.

In Which I Scratch a Canning Itch (Recipe: Honey Strawberry Jam)

Hen July arrived and I hadn’t canned or preserved a single thing, save for a few bottles of strawberry-infused vodka, I began to panic a little. Yes, even though I’m the one who coached you on how to get your act together for the canning season , I’m still trying to kick-start my efforts.

So partially as incentive to get canning and partially to get out of the post-camping cleanup , I purchased a large flat of fresh Québec strawberries with the intention of making them into jam. Goodness knows when I was going to get the opportunity, as my summer days are jammed packed full of picnics, bike riding, backyard baseball, finger painting and other important activities. However, when Danny called around lunchtime one day this week to let me know he’d be home from work early, I knew I had my chance. Jam would be made by evening or I’d be a monkey’s uncle.