Jam, From Scratch!

As I cooked this jam on Sunday morning I thought to myself:

"Wow, look at me. I'm so awesome! I'm making jam. This is so cool. I could totally live in the 1800's. I could totally be one of those frontier wife's. I make jam. I make bread. I'm learning new ways to cook from scratch."

Then I woke up from this haze to the smell of burning sugar. My jam had overflowed and I realized that I definitely could not be a frontier wife. I like my KitchenAid mixer. I like electricity. I don't think that I could light my own stove. And forget about running water. In short, I realized that I'm not as high speed as I thought I was. But back to the jam...

This jam is so good, and so easy to make. It's a refrigerator jam, there is no pectin, no storing this on the shelf. It should last about 3 weeks in the fridge. However, I don't think it's going to stick around that long. Jeff says that he is very impressed with the way it turned out. He doesn't think I can do a lot of things...I love proving him wrong!

This jam is based off of a recipe I found in the book Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy. Her recipe calls for equal parts berries to sugar. I found that too sweet for my taste. I also added some apple cider vinegar. In my mind, the vinegar will help to preserve the jam. If it doesn't, don't burst my bubble. But it did turn out surprisingly well. Okay, so I sounded like a dork when I yelled at Jeff, "Look jam! I made jam!" Let's just say I know what people are getting for Christmas this year...

Refrigerator Jam

1 C Sugar
1.5 C Berries (I used a frozen mixed berry blend that had strawberries and blackberries in it. I defrosted the 12oz bag and added the entire contents, juice and all to the pot)
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

In a heavy bottomed 3 qt or larger saucepan, add your berries, sugar and apple cider. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat (watch it or it will boil over and you will have to scrape burnt sugar off your cook top). Once your jam has come to a boil, turn it to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally (or the sugars will burn) until the mixture has reduced by half. I would say that this took about 15-20 minutes.

Transfer your jam from the pot to your container and let cool. Once the mixture has cooled store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.