After conquering my biggest domestic fear by making my first batch of strawberry jelly (which was delish and is almost all gone!) I decided to make another round. Since peaches were on sale and smelled so sweet in the grocery store, I bought a bag full and located a peach jam recipe.
I ended up using the recipe inside this Instant Pectin bottle. It cooks fast which I appreciate and was only 4 steps. I ended up adding a little cardamom spice which was recommended in another jam cookbook. According to Wikipedia, cardamom is in the ginger family. I think it adds a warmth to the jelly much like cloves or cinnamon would.
One helpful tip, if you boil peaches for one minute and then place them in an ice cold bowl of water for about 5 minutes, the skin and the pits come off super easy. Like with your fingers pulling on the skin easy. I was shocked how easy.
Here is my finished jam, served warm on a cracker. Yummy! I want to pour this over ice cream and eat a big bowl of it. So good!
A little canning education, I learned while writing this post:
Jam is made from crushed or chopped fruit cooked with pectin and often lemon juice.
Jelly is jelled fruit juice, typically without any chunks of fruit.
Marmalade or preserves have large chunks of fruit suspended in the syrup base.
Chutney is a condiment made from fruits of vegetables that is not served as a spread.
Learn more at The Nibble.
