Ingredients:

1 pound cranberries
1 hard apple such as Arkansas Black or Granny Smith, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/2-inch chunks
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger or crystallized ginger
3 inch cinnamon stick
zest of 1 orange in finest possible threads
1 teaspoon brandy
1/4 cup chopped pecans

1: Rinse cranberries and put in a kettle with water, cubed apple, ginger, cinnamon stick, and orange zest. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes until berries pop.

2: Add sugar to the kettle and return to a gentle boil, stirring constantly. Once the sugar has fully dissolved, add brandy and nuts and cook for 2-3 minutes more until thickened, stirring carefully to prevent scorching.

3: Remove cinnamon stick and serve or refrigerate in a covered container for up to two weeks. If you want to can the jam: ladle hot jam into prepared 1/2 pint jars and seal. Process sealed jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

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2 pounds black mission or brown Turkey figs, about 5 cups quartered
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon or more fennel seed
3 bay leaves
zest from one lemon
juice from one lemon

1. Figs don’t need much prep. Just trim the stem end and quarter for quicker cooking.
2. Layer figs, sugar, honey, lemon juice, zest and wild aromatics in a bowl. Macerate overnight.
3. Put the fruit-sugar mix in the preserving pan, bring to a full boil and skim. Moderate heat and continue skimming, gently stirring or shaking to prevent figs from sticking to the pot and scorching. About 10 minutes cooking should reduce it sufficiently. Ladle into jars and process in boiling water for 10 minutes.

YIELD
2.2 pounds figs yielded 2.5 pints 

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For 10 pints

Any quantity of mixed heirloom tomatoes (One word of caution: weight your mix heavily in favor of red tomatoes over lower-acid yellow ones, since the high acid content of tomatoes is what allows us to safely can them using the boiling-water method).

1 Tablespoon of bottled lemon juice ***PER PINT*** (must be bottled, not fresh, for controlled acidity)

1. Prepare the tomatoes: blanch them a few at a time in a large quantity of boiling water for 1 minute, then lift out with a slotted spoon and plunge into a basin of ice water. When cool, remove them to drain but do not begin to peel until you’ve blanched them all.
2. Now you need to work quickly: peel three or four tomatoes and quarter them into a pot large enough to hold your entire batch. Crush the tomatoes (I just squeeze them with my hands). You want to have enough pulp and liquid to cover the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil.
3. Once the boil has begun, continue to peel and quarter tomatoes one at a time. Press them into the boiling pot so that they heat through as quickly as possible. Stir occasionally so your pot doesn’t scorch, but maintain a steady boil. Once all the tomatoes are into the pot, boil for 10 minutes.
4. Pass the tomatoes through a food mill. (I use a coarse blade because I like the texture, but use a finer blade or a Chinois if you’d prefer to strain the seeds.) Return puree to the pot.
5. Return to a boil and reduce while stirring by half, or until thickened to your preference. Salt to taste—but use a fairly light hand, since you may further reduce the sauce when cooking with it later.
6. Line up your clean jars. Add into each jar 1 Tablespoon of bottled lemon juice ***PER PINT.*** (I.e., a quart jar gets 2 Tablespoons lemon juice.) Ladle tomatoes into your jars, seal and process in a boiling-water bath per USDA guidelines: 35 minutes for pint jars (at sea level), 40 minutes per quart (at sea level.)
7. When boiling-water bath is complete, turn off the heat and allow jars to sit in the pot of water, uncovered, for 5 minutes. This allows the pressure inside the jars to stabilize and prevents leakage when you remove the jars to cool.

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3 large ruby red grapefruits
3 cups water
4 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
2 tablespoons rose water or lemon juice

1. Set a large pot of water to boil. Cut off the peel of the grapefruits, working to get good thick slices, but leaving the inner white pith closest to the fruit still attached to the fruit. Cut the peels into strips. Blanch the peels by submersing them in boiling water for about three minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under running water. Bring a fresh pot of water to a boil and repeat the blanching process again, this removes any bitterness. Drain and rinse again.
2. Place the peels in a large pot. Cut off all the white pith from the remaining fruits then, working over the pot, cut between the grapefruit membranes so that the fruit sections fall into the pot. Squeeze juice from the membranes and discard them. Repeat with remaining fruits.
3. Add the water and sugar to the pot and bring to a boil, stirring to combine. Lower the heat to a very low simmer. Simmer until the marmalade is thick and translucent, about one hour. The marmalade may still appear a touch watery- keep in mind it will thicken as it cools.
4. Add the vanilla bean seeds and simmer another five minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the rose water (or lemon) and set aside to cool. You could can this and process in a hot water bath or simply store in jars in the fridge.

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Christine Ferber, author of “Mes Confiture” inspires with her recipe for “Pectin Stock”, a natural alternative to packaged pectin.

3 1/2 pounds green apples 
4 2/3 cups granulated sugar
6 1/2 cups water
Juice of one small lemon

1. Rinse apples in cold water.  Remove stems and cut fruit into quarters without peeling.  Put them in a pan and cover with water.  When mixture comes to a boil, simmer for half an hour on low heat.
2. Collect the juice by pouring preparation through a fine chinois sieve and pressing lightly on the fruit with the back of a skimmer.  Then filter a second time through cheese cloth that has been wet and wrung out.
3. Pour 4 1/4 cups of the juice into a preserving pan with the lemon juice and the sugar.  Bring to a boil, skim and continue cooking on high heat for 5 to 10 minutes.  Skim again if necessary. 
4. Return to a boil.  Check the set.  Pour the jelly into jars and seal.
5. This is a “pectin stock” jelly and can be added to jams such as pear or cherry which have very little natural pectin:  it will facilitate the jell.  Choose very green apples, preferably at the beginning of July when they haven’t ripened yet.  You can make a compote with the pulp by putting it through a coarse food mill and adding sugar and spice to taste.

Thanks to my good friend Susan the pastry chef who shared Ferber’s book with me.

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amounts given PER PINT

about 1 lb Roma or other variety plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice. (I don’t like using bottled lemon juice because it tastes like wet dog dunked in Drano, BUT the argument for it is that commercial lemon juice has a set acidity level so it’s more reliable for food safety.)

1. Peel the tomatoes: working in small batches, blanch tomatoes in a large quantify of boiling water for 1 minute. Remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl of ice water to arrest cooking. Cut out the stem with the point of your paring knife and then peel away the skin.

2. Now you need to work quickly: quarter enough tomatoes into a pot to cover the bottom, mash them good with a potato masher to release their juices and quickly bring them to a lively simmer.

3. While they heat, blanch and peel your next small batch of tomatoes. Add them one by one to the now-simmering liquid in the pot. If you want you can quarter each new tomato as it goes in. I like to crush each one lightly in my palm and immediately push it down into the hot juice.

4. Once all your tomatoes are in the pot, return to a boil and cook steadily for 5 minutes, stirring and turning over the tomatoes periodically.

5. Ladle into jars and seal. Process in a boiling-water bath for 35 minutes for pints and 45 minutes for quarts.

If any of this is unclear, please consult Ball or USDA-approved canning guidelines before attempting the process.

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BASIC RATION by weight 4:3

FOR A BIG BATCH
8 pounds Alberta peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced (Note that 10 pounds whole fruit yielded 8 pounds prepared.)
6 pounds sugar
juice of 3 lemons
1. To peel peaches: cut a shallow X in the stem end of each fruit and, working in small batches, blanch briefly for perhaps 30 seconds until skin begins to visibly loosen. Remove from boiling water. When cool enough to handle, remove skins (most will readily slip off), pit and slice into eighths.

2. Stir together prepared fruit, sugar and lemon juice in a large shallow pot. Bring to a full rolling boil. Moderate heat, skim and continue stirring until mixture is thickened to the jell point. (I didn’t time this batch, but I’d guess it cooked about 25 minutes. Peaches are juicy and time some time to reduce.) Ladle into pint jars, seal and process in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes.

YIELD
10 pounds whole fruit yielded 6.5 pints
6 x pints

1 x 8 oz

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