Jelly time again

It's that time of year again. I love the sound of canned jar lids popping through the night as their vacuum seal takes effect after their hot canning bath.

This year I've already canned a delicious apple-orange jelly. Apples tend to have so much pectin in them that only a little acidic fruit is needed to make them congeal. Of course, that tends to make the jelly juice a little bitter. A generous 2.25 cups of sugar for each 2.33 cups of juice makes the jelly sweet and preserves the jelly for up to two years after canning. (The sugar acts as an anti-bacterial agent. It's yeast that likes sugar, not bacteria.)

Making jelly involves a two-step cooking process. The first step is cooking raw fruit to draw out their juices. The juices are then strained into a pot. The second step involves adding sugar and sometimes pectin to the juice then cooking it for an additional period to set the jelly. After this comes the canning stage.

The following form is used to calculate the number of cups of juice within a cylindrical container based on the inner dimensions of that container. This is helpful for jelly making when juice has been strained into a pot for the second stage. If you know the ratio of sugar to juice, it can calculate the number of cups of sugar to add, too.

Open the Popup Jelly Making Sugar Calculator

Next time I'm going to use an industrial juicer to draw out that delicious golden liquid from the apples. I figure it will take less time initially, but I'll need to heat it up a little longer in the second stage to kill the enzymes that are usually killed in the first stage.

Enzymes are a primary cause for the break-down of fruit after it's dead. If you don't kill those proteins before canning the jelly, your product would only last a few weeks at best.

Oh - and that apple-orange jelly recipe?

Software
• 3 lb cooking apples
• 3 medium or 2 large oranges
• 5 cups of water
• approximately 5 1/2 cups of sugar

Hardware
• Juice Bag or a Stainless-Steel Chinois Set or a 2' Square of Clean, Never-dyed, Prewashed, Coarse Cotton Muslin with Butchers Twine
• Cheesecloth and Butchers Twine (optional)
• 4 qt Stainless-Steel Pot or Larger To heat The Fruit And Jelly
• 2 qt Glass bowl or 2 qt Measuring Cup or 2+ qt Pot/Pan To Capture Juice
• 8 16-oz Canning Jars With Lids and Rims To Keep The Jelly
• Canner with Jar Rack To Preserve The Jelly
• Canning Kit With Thongs To Keep From Burning Your Fingers
• Wooden Spoon To Stir The Juice Since Wood Doesn't Change The Jelly's Temperature
• Slotted Stainless-Steel Spoon To Scoop Off The Tart Scum
• Paring Knife To Cut The Fruit
• A Refrigerated Saucer To Test The Jelly
• Clean Towels And a Very Clean Counter

You want a large wooden spoon since it doesn't change the temperature of your jelly mixture. Making jelly is akin to making candy. Sudden drops in temperature can cause nasty results. If you're making this at high altitudes, like I do, make sure you boil your jars an extra 6 minutes and watch your jelly very carefully. It will burn and make a nasty mess if you're not careful. Watch your barometric pressure, too. I'm not joking. If there's a storm coming in, do your jelly making another day. At sea level, watching the weather and adding time to sterilizing your jars and making the jelly isn't necessary.

Peeling and coring the apples helps them break down faster, but keep the peels and the cores, as they add to the pectin. Chop, but don't peel, the oranges. If you want to have an easier time straining the fruit, tie up the the peels and seeds in a cheesecloth before you toss it in the pot with the rest of the fruit. After all the fruit is chopped up and prepared, put all the chunks in a large pot and add the water. Bring this up to a rapid boil then turn it down to a heavy simmer for about an hour. If the pot is uncovered, you might want to add an additional 1/4 cup of water to offset the evaporation.

While the fruit is boiling, prepare your straining method. Pour boiling hot water over the jelly straining bag, chinois, or Muslin. If you're using the muslin cloth, get some twine ready to tie the pulp into a ball and find some place to hang it where juice will drip into your juice-holding vessel.

After about an hour the apples should be practically disintegrated. If not, squish them with your slotted or wooden spoon. (Temperature is more important in the next phase, so it doesn't matter if the liquid in the pot cools a few degrees while you're squishing the fruit.) Take out the cheesecloth if you did that and carefully pour the juicy pulp into the bag/chinois/muslin while the device is over your 2-quart bowl/pan. Set it up so that the dripping can occur overnight. Now get some sleep and dream of warm home-made buttermilk biscuits coated with dripping butter and delicious apple-orange jelly.

At this point you should have about 5 cups of juice, but you need to know exactly. Calculate the diameter of your juice-holding vessel. Now calculate how high the juice is in that vessel and type some numbers into the calculator. Also put in 2.25 for the sugar and 2.33 for the juice ratios. The calculator will tell you how much sugar to add. Don't skimp or you'll be sorry.

Get out your canner. Fill it with water set it to boiling on the stove-top. Once the water is at a hard boil, carefully insert clean jars for them to sterilize over the course of 12-18 minutes. Sterilize the rims, too, but not the lids until the last 2-5 minutes because they have a wax seal that needs delicate treatment. Set out your sterilized jars, lids and rims on a clean towel drawn over the counter but keep the canner boiling. You'll need it again in about 15 minutes.

Pour the sugar in the 4-qt pot and put it in the oven at 170 degrees for 15 minutes. Warming the sugar will help it dissolve. Now pour the juice into the pot containing the warmed sugar and place it on the stove-top. Start stirring and turn the burner on high to bring this to a rapid boil. You must dissolve all the sugar and you want to do so as quickly as possible to keep it from burning. This is where you'll use that long-handled wooden spoon. Now stir like a madman!

Once the sugar is well dissolved, stop stirring and watch. This next step takes about 10 minutes but is vital to the success of your jelly. If it starts to over-boil, turn down the heat only slightly and gently stir the mixture with the wooden spoon, but only if you have to. It's better not to stir this at all.

You'll see some foam on the top that looks like a dreamsicle. This foam needs to be scraped off the top of the jelly, but you can save it in a bowl for making tarts later as it makes a fantastic tart filling. Carefully spoon this foam (sometimes called scum) from the top of the pot into a bowl. It's okay to use a metal spoon at the top of the jelly, just not inside. Keep scooping out that froth until all you see in the pot is a clear amber color.

Now test to see if the jelly has set. Spoon a little of the jelly onto a cold saucer. Wait a few seconds then push with your finger. If it clumps in front of your finger, it's ready. The harder it clumps or ripples, the harder the jelly will set. For other ways to check if the jelly has set - consult Google.

Ladle out the hot golden jelly into jars, wipe off the rims, gently place the lids over the top and lightly tighten the rims. Don't tighten them too hard or the canning process won't create the vacuum seal.

Place the jelly-filled, gently-lidded jars in the canner for 8-14 minutes. You should see small bubbles come up from the jars. This is normal and good. The air pressure inside the jars is building up as heat causes it to expand. This pressure will counter that of the water in the canner to keep the jars free of seepage.

Once time is up, pull out the jars and set them on the counter. Don't tighten the rings just yet. In time you'll hear metal popping. That's the beautiful sound of vacuum pressure sealing and protecting your jelly for up to two years. If the lid doesn't do this the jelly must be stored in the fridge and consumed within the next few weeks.

An hour after pulling the jars from the canner, tighten the rims and decorate with labels and ribbon. Hey - I might be a man, but I've got to make things pretty for the ladies!

Blackened Fish Tacos

What I didn't like about Stevie Ray's soft fish tacos:

1. Too spicy hot. My taste buds were so preoccupied fighting the chili burns that it couldn't taste anything else. I tried to tone down the flavor with sour cream and salad but the salad seemed permeated by the same spice only hotter!

2. Fish strips were too short - almost like curds. They either piled up or flopped out of the taco. You remember the school cafeteria progression? Steaks on Monday, Hamburger on Tuesday, spaghetti and Meatballs on Wednesday, mystery meatloaf on Thursday, etc... I felt like it was Wednesday and some other customer who got there before me had the full fillet.

3. Too wet. The corn tortillas were soggy and messy. This also made the corn tortillas droopy, putting more pressure on the dry structure and causing them to split more.

4. Soft corn tortillas weren't softened. Whatever parts weren't dripping in soggy mess were splitting apart, as mentioned earlier.

5. Condiments were old. The guacamole was brownish green and the sour cream was coagulated.

6. Sides did not compliment the meal. The "coleslaw" seemed to have been soaked in the cayenne pepper which meant that trying to cool your tongue by eating the only side you had to the meal made the experience even more painful.

7. With the old condiments, lack of original sides and geometrically placed tacos sagging around the sides of the platter, the dish appeared as appetizing as fast food. I already had an ill conceived idea of what dinner experience my mouth would suffer in the next half hour.

Thoughts on solutions:
1. Use a milder Creole spice rather than the spicy Cajun variety.

2. Use more butter than before to keep the fillets from breaking apart while cooking and cut the fish fillets into longer strips AFTER they've been pan fried with a very sharp knife. If cut prior to frying, coat them in an egg-white spice mix to hold the structure of the flesh and lock in the flavor.

3. Dry on one platter, wet on another. Even if the wet platter is a bowl in the center - keep the wet away from the dry. And drain the oil off the fish before sticking them in the corn tortillas. Add well drained - very well drained - ingredients to the taco like slightly under ripe tomatoes and black beans. These add flavor without the squish.

4. Press corn tortillas in very hot steam to soften them. Try sprinkling a little cheese all over a slightly moist corn tortilla (this will add structure) then super heat it in a dry pan. That will make it pliable. Also offer a flour tortilla option.

5. Repeat after me ... fresher is better. That aside - guacamole turns brown in about half an hour after it's been exposed to air. Lime or lemon juice help deter the oxidation process. Only make guacamole on an as need basis. Don't make a bowl of it at 10 AM to scoop out at 5 PM. Yuck! To keep sour cream from coagulating, use a fattier option and mix with a little bit of whole milk. Also - plain sour cream? Be more original. Use plain white yogurt or sour cream infused with sun-dried tomatoes. That tang will give a twist that will make conversation.

6. There's got to be something more original or flavorful than chopped white lettuce soaked in cayenne pepper. Rice. Rice and fish go great together. So does polenta. Try a little gumbo on the side. These make interesting sides that compliment the dish, not detract from it.

7. Take a plating course. Look at foodie blogs to see how plates are arranged. Don't place in symmetrical patterns flat across the plate, but use some level of vertical direction. Add a sliced and twisted orange with a sprig of cilantro over the top to add zest and appeal.

That's it.

Living on the edge

When I bake brownies they usually end up a bit soft in the center, if you know what I mean. I'm talking gummy. (Note to self - chocolate flavored gummy bears... hmmm). But for many others suffering the same result, that's changing.

The Baker's Edge pan has been reviewed by nearly every baking company and food-based organization under the sun. That is, except the main chefs at the Food Network, which I suppose will hold off on their reviews until the Food Network can sell it. Although, Emeril and America's Test Kitchen have reviews on it. But where's Alton, the kitchen-gadget-geek-extraordinaire's review?

So what's the buzz? No more gummy brownies and more slightly-crunchy chewy edges. This pan distributes heat evenly across the brownie, baking it's middle volume at the same rate as the outer pan. Several famous foodies including Alton Brown might call this a uni-tasker ... but this is a glorified pan that could bake nearly anything a regular pan could.

My first thought is how difficult it might be to get the portions out of the pan - particularly if you're dealing with Lasagna or "Mississippi Mud Pie/Cake" (aka "Sex In A Pan").

My second thought is - it's aluminum. I believe that the strong ties between aluminum and Alzheimer's merits enough concern to stay away from aluminum when I can. I even go through the labels of toothpaste and deodorant to verify it is aluminum free. Why would I want it in my food, or want my food baking in it? Other than how aluminum heats up and cools off quickly (i.e. being a good conductor of heat), there is no reason not to go with stainless steel or cast iron or even silicon - all without Teflon, of course.

It would be interesting to see if this ever comes into stainless steel or silicon variety. Silicon would be particularly interesting since the weaving bars should give it more stability.