Strawberry and Rhubarb in Many Ways

Oh goodness! Strawberries! Strawberries! Strawberries! We picked nine quarts of strawberries on Wednesday. Nine! And thus there was Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, Rhubarb Jam (well, sort of, it was supposed to be butter, but the rhubarb was too fresh for butter making--but the week old rhubarb was perfect for that application), Strawberry Jam, and for good measure some Orange Rhubarb Butter with fruit in the fridge that hadn't been eaten before we picked. And we have at least five cups of strawberries frozen. Oh, and might I say, the food processor that Chris's mother has was key in making this go quickly.

So let's get right to the onslaught of recipes.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Yields: 6 to 6-1/2 cups

2 cups thinly sliced rhubarb (~6 stalks)
2 cups thinly sliced strawberries
(optional) 1/4 cup lemon juice
5-1/2 cups of sugar
1 box pectin

General jamming directions apply (and will follow).

Strawberry Jam

Yields: 8 cups

5 cups thinly sliced strawberries
7 cups sugar
1 box pectin

General jamming directions apply (and will follow).

Rhubarb Jam/Butter

Yields: 3 cups for jam, 2 cups for butter

4 cups thinly sliced rhubarb
2 cups sugar

For this recipe, you mix the sugar into the rhubarb and macerate overnight in the fridge.

Dump it all in the pot, bring to a full rolling boil for at least one minute (until it reaches the jamming point [222°F]) or, if doing a butter, until it reaches an appropriate consistency.

Then you jar as normal.

What makes this a jam versus a butter is the variety and freshness of the rhubarb. For instance, the rhubarb that I had picked only the day before (processed that same day, macerated overnight, and did up) turned into a jam.  The same variety of rhubarb, picked the week before (and buried in the fridge) turned into butter.

Orange Rhubarb Butter

Yields: 1 cup
Adapted from FoodinJars

2 cups thinly sliced rhubarb
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup (fresh-squeezed) orange juice

Mix everything together, bring to a simmer, and let butter. Or, if you're impatient and like a darker butter, turn up the heat and stir constantly 'til it reduces into a butter. This is particularly pretty if the rhubarb is more red than green or if you have some honey tangerines to squeeze in there (if you didn't know, these are nearly fluorescent orange).

And, of course, jar as normal.

General Jamming Directions

1. Wash and rinse the jars, rings and lids

2. Place the jars and accessories into your water bath canner (aka, a really big pot), make sure the water comes to about 1 inch above the top of the jars and bring the pot to a boil

3. While that is coming to a boil, measure the fruit into your jamming pot (I use a 1.5 or a 2 gallon pot) and your sugar into a separate bowl

4. Stir the pectin into the fruit

5. Bring the fruit to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly

6. Dump the sugar into the boiling fruit all at once and stir quickly until it is all incorporated

7. Bring back to a rolling boil, stirring constantly, and hold it there for one full minute

8. Pull off the heat, and take a spoon to skim the foam off the top (to eat with ice cream later)

9. Pull the jars from the boiling water, pour the hot jam into them, cap tightly, and place back into the boiling water canner (be careful not to overflow it if you poured the water from the jars back into the pot like I do) for 10 minutes (assuming you're using half-pint or pint-sized jars)

10. After that, pull them out onto a towel covered counter and leave them alone for 24 hours