1. Sweet Surprise: Homemade Strawberry Vanilla Bean Preserves

'Aint nothing like the real thing, baby.

No matter how many times I see the “Sweet Surprise” commercial produced by The Corn Refiners Association I will never believe that eating high fructose corn syrup is a good idea, never. Call me old fashioned, call me a tree-hugging, granola eating hippie, call me crazy, whatever. I am convinced that high fructose corn syrup is bad for our bodies, at least partly responsible for epidemic rates of obesity and diabetes, and in no way a nutritious or positive additive to the food supply. As a die hard label reader I thought I had weeded this vile substance out of my kitchen by careful purchase decisions at the grocery store and deliberate scratch cooking. The other day I pulled a half full jar of delicious, seedless blackberry jam from my refrigerator and proceeded to spread it onto a thick slice of crisply toasted, organic, multi-grain, preservative free, freshly baked sourdough bread that I had previously slathered in sweet-cream, organic butter. Decadent to be sure, and one of my favorite quick and easy breakfasts, I am a toast lover through and through. For whatever reason, call it fate, I quickly scanned the familiar label and read the ingredients list. It read, “Blackberries, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Fruit Pectin, Citric Acid. UHG. What had I done? If I want corn in my jam, I’ll put it there myself. To eat it or not to eat it…well, I ate it, but threw out the remainder of the jam, (added the glass jar to the recycling bin) and developed a great resolve to find a solution to this earth shaking blow of post-industrial reality. I literally felt like I had been duped. I had grown up on this jam and purchased it, without thinking, all of my adult life. While I know there are better, gourmet jams out there, this one had served me well, I thought. That image of a lush farm, fresh fruit, and cheerful, rosy-cheeked children was all a lie, and worst of all, it had worked.

Determined to obliterate my desire to ever purchase jam from the J.M. Smucker Company again, I made my own. Now, when I tell you that once you try your hand at making jam, or in this case preserves, you will NEVER want to eat the mass produced product again, it is totally true! Not only is it easy – don’t believe the hype that it’s not, but HOLY COW is it amazingly delicious. This is the most delicious, scrumptious fruit topping I have ever had the good fortune to put on my tongue. I highly suggest you try this.

Opting to make traditional preserves and in the French style of no added pectin, which results in a softer set, and making use of the abundant fresh strawberries that were at the peak of their season, I made Strawberry Vanilla Bean preserves. There are just three ingredients. It’s so simple and the results so incredible, it’s like magic. You will need a little time, a little patience, and a big heavy pot. The recipe yields about seven 8 oz jars, so you can either freeze what you don’t refrigerate, refrigerate and plan to give away some jars, or put it up by the water-bath canning method. Canning is what I chose to do. If you haven’t done this before it’s easy to find the equipment at your local big box retailer or hardware store and the library as well as the internet have instructions. (Canning, by the way, is also much easier than you might think and your Great Aunt Ida probably has everything you need as well as detailed instructions and wonderful stories about putting up the harvest if you just ask.)

Strawberry Vanilla Bean Preserves
Yield, approximately seven 8oz jars

Ingredients:
8 cups strawberries, hulled, rinsed, and quartered/cut, organic if possible
4 cups cane sugar, organic if possible
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, scraped

Directions:
Fill your sink with cold water and give your strawberries a good once over. Remove them to a colander to drain and hull each, cutting them into chunks or quartering them into approximately equal size pieces, adding them to a large, deep, stainless steel or enameled, heavy bottomed pot. Your pot needs to be at least double the height of the 8 cups of strawberries and the heavy bottom will help to prevent scorching which would lend a nasty, burnt taste to the finished product . Pour the sugar over the strawberries, throw in the vanilla bean and the scraped seeds and give it all a stir. Allow this strawberry, sugar, and vanilla mix to sit at room temperature for at least ten minutes or up to a half an hour to allow juices to flow and strawberries to macerate. Crush your berries a bit with a potato masher. Move your pot to the stove and heat the mixture on medium heat while stirring nearly constantly. You may have to adjust the heat higher or lower, but keep a close eye on it, stirring, so as not to burn. The mixture must reduce and thicken and come to the gel stage so you’re your preserves will have the right consistency. The cooking time will depend on a number of factors such as how juicy your berries are, so while I cannot tell you how long it will take to come to the gel stage, I can tell you how to determine when it’s done.

For the gel test you will need to put several small plates into the freezer. After you have cooked your berries for perhaps 15 to 20 minutes, begin testing for gel set. Take a plate from the freezer and place a spoonful of preserves on it. Give it a gentle shake and put the plate back into the freezer for one minute. Continue this process until the cooled preserves have a wrinkled skin on top. Mine took about a half an hour and the wrinkling was minimal. The finished consistency was chunky and jammy and absolutely perfect.

At this point, if you haven’t already, take a spoonful, blow on it, and taste the magic! Remove the vanilla bean. Your preserves are now ready to be put into your sterilized jars if you are canning them or into containers for the fridge.

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