Other than making pickles, I’ve never preserved any foods. What better time to start than during a pandemic? Thus, I accepted an offer to review the book, Preserving the Season: 90 Delicious Recipes for Jams, Jellies, Preserves, Chutneys, Pickles, Curds, Condiments, Canning & Dishes Using Them ($19.99, IMM Lifestyle Books).
Author Mary Tregellas outlines everything you need to know to get started, including what to preserve at various times of the year (make marmalade in January and February), the equipment you need (I didn’t know there’s a thing called a jam funnel) and all the different types of preserves, including chutney and ketchup.
I love strawberry jam so that was the first recipe I followed (p. 26). This was a good one to start on because it had relatively few ingredients–just strawberries, lemon, sugar and butter–and then only three steps. I know it’s self-serving to say, but the strawberry jam I made was delicious, with the right balance of sweetness and tartness.
Next I will make the Seville orange marmalade (p. 76). The recipe calls for oranges, lemon juice and sugar, but it does take a few more steps as you do need to cook, strain, slice and then re-cook.
I was pleasantly surprised to find recipes for other foods that can go with your jams such as schnitzel with cranberry sauce and Kaiserschmarren (also known as emperor’s pancake) to go with your fruit compote. Once I get all the ingredients, I plan on making the mango and ginger chutney (p. 96) to go on top of the Really Good Cold Roast Chicken Sandwich (p. 102).
I also like dipping baguette into flavored oils so I do plan on making the flavored oils listed on p. 128.
I enjoyed reading the short summaries of each recipe as well as Tregellas’s tips. For example, for the arugula and walnut pesto, she warns you about the recipe being heavy on garlic. The book covers a lot of topics and ends with making liqueurs, flavored vodkas, cordials and even bread.
Tregellas got her obsession, as she puts it, of making preserves from her childhood growing up in Europe picking plums (which turned into jam), zucchini (chutney), tomatoes (ketchup) and wild fruit (everything).
Photo courtesy of Fox Chapel Publishing
Tags: cooking
