Tangy Apricot Jam (Page 917)

RECIPE #759

• Date: Saturday, June 7, 2008 -- 10am
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: Matty's Apartment
• Fellow Chef: Matty
• Dining Companions: Terry and Dave
• Recipe Rating: B+
  

I was looking for something to make for a Father's Day gift, so I headed to the produce market with a list of everything I had left to can in The Book. Of the various options, the apricots looked the best, so this was the official Father's Day selection. This jam was pretty good. It had a nice apricot flavor, and approximately the right amount of sweetness (it was maybe just a touch too sweet -- but only a tiny bit). The "tangy" in the title refers to the addition of a large quantity of lemon juice. It did give the jam a nice zing, and counterbalanced the sweetness well. There was also a touch of almond extract added, which was very subtle, but provided a nice background note to the flavor of the jam. My only complaint about this jam was that it had a very slightly grainy texture to it. I had the same issue with the nectarine jam. I don't know so much about canning, or pectin, so I am not sure what causes that. I can only assume it has something to do with the powdered pectin since my strawberry jam (which had no added pectin) didn't suffer from the same issue. Aside from that one issue, this jam was pretty tasty.

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The Copenhagen workshop ended yesterday afternoon and now we have a weekend to enjoy the city of Copenhagen before the conference portion of the trip starts up in Germany on Monday. Today we started the day with a beautiful boat ride. Copenhagen has wonderful canals and it was great fun to see the city from a boat. After the boat ride, and a picnic lunch, we did a bit of sightseeing. We wandered through the King's Garden, and went to the botanical garden, which was very cool. We ended our afternoon by sitting on a curb, drinking beer and eating ice cream -- it's hard to complain about that! After many, many hours of walking around, I struggled through my run, and now I am relaxing before we head off for dinner!

Overall, it has been a lovely week in Denmark. The workshop was very productive -- I learned a lot this week, and met some great new people. It was only made better by the fact that Copenhagen is a great city! I have one more day to enjoy it, and then tomorrow night it is off to Bonn!