![]() Use the Sure-Jell recipe in the box and do exactly what is says. Her wisdom, the fruit of decades, gave me courage. She had used every variety of commercial pectin, and said that she (or at least people she knew) could taste the difference among them. She said she’d tried everything over the years, from traditional recipes, to freezer jams, to “quick and easy” methods. She sent an effusive, detailed letter, single spaced with narrow margins. If I asked her nicely, surely our friend Kathy would guide me through the arcane world of jam. But I knew someone who came closer than anyone else I knew to being the grandmotherly salt-of-the-earth Downeast Maine kind of home cook. I imagined a sweaty, daylong ordeal in a kitchen filled with steam and lava-hot strawberry slurry. I had eaten homemade jam, but never had stood at the elbow of someone making it. I had little family expertise to draw on. I was determined to master the art of jam-making. But the closer my wife and I moved to places that had nearby fields advertising "pick your own strawberries" – cheaper and therefore more tempting to acquire in mass quantities – the more the idea of making jam grew in my mind. Meanwhile, Vicky Cheng’s exploration to preserving is expanding, with possibilities of more jams made in the future.Homemade jam seemed so difficult and mysterious to me, something that could only be achieved after a career of trial and error littered with batches that failed to set. ![]() The limited-edition jam is part of a charity project in aids to underprivileged families in Hong Kong. The finished jam, thick with just the right amount of sugar added, is ladled into sterilized jars and ready to be served.įor special sentimental value, Vicky has named his first preserve after his daughter Elizabeth as a dedication to her first birthday. Through macerating and rapid but short intervals of boiling with vanilla and rock sugar, bird’s nests are added to the mix and cooked until the hot berry compote thickens. He created his jam with Japanese white strawberries, uniquely beige and aromatic that melts on the palate. Unlike traditional means of preserving which often yields a smoothly set spread of cooked fruit, Vicky Cheng’s strawberry jam is heartier. As his daughter’s first birthday approached, Vicky considered a charity offering as his gift as a parent to his daughter, thus the creation of an exclusive jam. After numerous recipe tests, the prototype of his strawberry jam was created. Gaining the knowledge equipped him with an opportunity to explore in preserving. Through an earlier strawberry promotion at Vea earlier this year, Vicky grew a deeper understanding on the different qualities of the most prized strawberries from Korea and Japan. Strawberry jams are considered an entry-level jam for novices, and one of the most popular jams. For Vicky Cheng, executive chef of Vea, preserving has been a budding interest, until recently he realized his interest into his latest charity project, a special edition strawberry bird’s nest jam with a special meaning. The right proportions of fresh fruits to sugar, the role of pectin, a natural setting agent that helps the jam set, and the seasons that yield optimal ripeness of fruits to be preserved, all fall under the technical side of preserving. ![]() Jam making is no easy task, as it is as much about science as it is about art.
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