Making Preserves

Yesterday was a preserve day, I made nine jars of different kinds of preserves with the fruit that I had on hand. And, as usual I wanted something a little different from the ordinary jams that I had been eating all along. 

First of all, there is a slight difference apparently between preserves and jams - preserves are thicker, chunkier and usually contain other ingredients such as dried fruit and spices. As opposed to a jam which most often contains only fruit and water (in my house anyway!). But, both are fruit based and these terms are often used interchangeably.

With all of the types of fruit that I had in the house this week, I thought that it would be great to make something a little different and to keep expanding my own learning and methods of working with each type of preserve. I also wanted to make something that was chunkier and could be used as part of a meal rather than only being suitable for toast and crackers.

Since I had a few apples and pears in the house I ended up making a great smelling spiced apple/pear preserve that was not blended as much as it normally would leaving it quite chunky and very thick. The only spice that I used was cinnamon for this one just to keep it simple and because cinnamon goes very well with anything related to apple.

Raw Apple and Pear ready to cook

The end result is similar to an apple sauce, but with the presence of pears, will give a softer, fuller flavour. This type of preserve will be great on crackers with cheese or on the side of a veggie rice stir-fry as a sauce. I am enjoying the versatility of these foods and can imagine endless possibilities and ways to use them.

Jars of spiced apple & pear preserves 

Next, with all of the apricots, nectarines, peaches and more apples, I decided to make what I ended up calling Apricot Raisin Preserves because that was the dominate fruit. Again I wanted to try my hand at making something a little different to give us various flavours, textures and tastes to enjoy in the coming months. This one I can't wait to taste!

There is something about the delicate flavour of apricots that draws us in and awakens the senses, when combined with a few spices and some other equally delightful flavours, this should turn out to be a wonderful addition to any meal. 

For this preserve I chopped and chopped everything that was to go in the large pot (I ended up making a lot of this) and then put in some apple juice, raisins and spices with a little water because the dried fruit would soak up a lot of the liquid. Again as with the mango chutney, I had to keep stirring because it was quite heavy and would settle on the bottom of the pot.

Chopped fruit and raisins for the preserves

I also let this mixture cook for quite a while to get the goodness of all these fruits well blended throughout the preserve. I decided to add pumpkin pie spice which I made up myself from cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. Of course the smell is magical and this will taste great with a meal , on bread and crackers or any where else that I can find to use it.

A big batch of preserves 

Today I am off to make some ice cream from left over bananas and some of these fresh preserves,

Have a good one!

April