Hellchick

My mother-in-law is the queen of preserving, and last year she'd sent me an entire kit: a boiling-water canner complete with tongs, magnetic lid lifter, funnel, jar lifter...the works. I called her for tips this week and decided to just jump in and give it a try because I still had gallons of currants and at least a couple of cups of raspberries in the freezer. And with the good weather coming, I figured I'd better do something with them now as I was going to get just as many berries this year. I also figured now was a good time to practice since I'm planning a huge garden this year and expect to have plenty to preserve at the end of the summer.

The first attempt today yielded something, but I'm not entirely sure it's something edible. Following a recipe from the Ball company preserving bible, I cooked two cups of raspberries with two cups of currants and lots of sugar. I got it to gelling consistency when I realized that I still needed to replace the pot that was boiling the jars on the stove with the canner, and that the water in the canner needed to get to boiling temperature before I could fill the jars and put them in. By the time I organized everything, the fruit had gone a bit beyond gelling to candy-like consistency, and I have a feeling that when I open the jars they'll actually be filled with raspberry-currant candy instead of the jam I had tried to make.

But Len realized that we could free up the burner on the stove by boiling the jars in a pot on the little portable burner that we use for our shabu shabu pot. So I took another four cups of currants from the gallon bag in the freezer -- leaving another half bag in there still -- and made another batch. This one came out much better and I think I've got my technique down now.

Tomorrow I'll get to open up the half-jar that I filled with the last bits and check it out. If it's good, then my friends can look forward to having jars of preserves foisted upon them later on.