Preserves

Limequats aren’t common, but they’re becoming more visible. One great way to use them is in a simple, versatile syrup like this one with honey.

My most-requested recipe: a classic Meyer lemon marmalade that won Best in Show at the county fair. Check out the added trick for using Pomona’s Pectin to get an easier, more reliable set.

A tiny-batch nectarine jam I made without added pectin, born from a bag of nectarines brought along on a no-connectivity trip to Alaska. This one’s made for the fridge, with notes on scaling up for canning.

A low-sugar apricot jam with almond extract and a splash of Grand Marnier, made from a surprise gift of fruit off a friend’s tree. Unsure of the exact variety of fruit, I named it for the beehives that sit in front of his orchard.

One of the reasons I’m keeping this blog these days is to document my experiments replacing sugar with honey in preserves, and this grapefruit honey jam was worth noting.

A honey-sweetened plum butter with orange, cardamom, and vanilla bean, made from a friend’s frozen plums. I wanted something rich and tart for the holidays that wasn’t cranberry relish, and this did the trick.

My slow-cooker apricot butter went badly wrong, but this quick honey-sweetened apricot jam was born from the leftovers—ready in twenty minutes and eaten up in a matter of days.

This week, I got to drive down to the central coast of California to spend a couple of days in Big Sur. I brought home four pounds of early-variety Brooks cherries from a roadside stand in Gilroy.

Here’s a sugar-free banana jam recipe from Hollyhock: Garden to Table, a cookbook by two friends whose cooking I deeply admire. It includes two of my recipes, too!

A couple weeks ago, I got hold of my very first bergamots. They are astonishingly fragrant. They also have an eye-opening flavor, very acidic, though not nearly as bitter as I expected.

I didn’t know I was going to give up sugar and that these honey-preserved apricots could serve as the base for a year’s worth of easy, surprisingly good micro-batch jams. They could and they will.

Pectin has been on my mind because I’m contemplating the best ways to make jam without refined sugar, and my new diet says I can’t add pectin. I don’t often use added pectin, but I don’t like losing my options.