So, I know that this blog is about preserves, but I recently started making my own yogurt and want to share some lessons learned from two successful batches and two failures. I use the same half-pint jars as for jam. Here’s my process:

1) Heat the milk to 190 degrees and keep it there for 5 mins. Do not boil. After one of my failures, I talked to the yogurt-maker at my farmers’ market, and he told me that I likely hadn’t kept the milk at a high enough temperature for long enough.

2) Put pot into bowl of cold water, and let milk come down to 110 degrees.

3) Add some plain yogurt. Stir very well. Make sure the yogurt has active cultures. Stonyfield says it does, but their yogurt didn’t work for me. The yogurt from my farmers’ market has been my most successful starter-yogurt.

4) Pour into half-pint jars and cover with lids and rings. Old lids work fine since the yogurt doesn’t need to be vacuum-sealed. Just be sure to keep your old lids separated from your new lids!

5) Put into a pre-heated oven (170 degrees). You need to keep the yogurt warm for a few hours. A gas oven with a pilot light works, or (if you have electric like me) just raise the temp to the lowest allowed every hour or so and turn the oven off. I like to leave it in for about 7 hours, which gets me a thicker yogurt. I use “reduced-fat” milk and it comes out plenty creamy for me (and I’d drink half-and-half if it didn’t kill me).

6) Refrigerate for a few hours, and, of course, add a tablespoon of jam.

My first failure occurred when I put the jars in a closet covered with an electric blanket. The jars accidentally fell over and the yogurt separated. For reasons I’m not clear on, you must make sure the yogurt stays upright while it is fermenting. Does anyone out there know why?

A note on the cost: Plain yogurt costs $0.89 at my Whole Foods for 6 oz. One quart organic milk costs $3.50 and makes 32 oz. of yogurt, saving me $1.25 (and 5 plastic containers).

The first spring BBQ of the year was the venue for the second raspberry jam Half Pint taste test. A dozen guests tasted 6 different kinds of raspberry jams, and the results are…

The winners:
1) Homemade pectin with 2:3 sugar:fruit ratio
2) Liquid pectin with 1:1 sugar:fruit ratio

The losers:
3) Pomona pectin with 1:3 sugar:fruit ratio (not sweet enough, disliked consistency)
4) Pomona pectin with no sugar (used a little erythritol) (not sweet enough, disliked consistency)
5) powdered pectin with 3:2 sugar:fruit ratio (too sweet and consistency too grainy)
6) fancy storebought brand (too sweet, tasted like apples)

So, I’m happy to know that my homemade pectin was the winner, but it’s a lot of work and the liquid pectin was equally well-liked. Sadly, despite my high hopes, the Pomona pectin was unanimously panned. I’m going to keep experimenting with it, though, because I like the fact that it comes in bulk and allows me to choose my sugar amounts. Clearly, a minimum of 2 parts sugar to 3 parts fruit is necessary for most people’s tastes. I’m also going to try and use less calcium water, since I think this makes the consistency a little too thick and somewhat chalky.

I’m back in the kitchen after a couple months of renovations that included a new wood countertop, cabinet refacing, and a tin backsplash. It’s still a work in progress, but good enough to get back to the jam-making. While on my hiatus, I also found another jam memoir called Blue Jelly by Debby Bull who apparently used to write for Rolling Stone (so jam-makers can be hip and edgy). The book is a little gem that combines snarky self-aware healing after a big break-up with therapeutic jam-making recipes. Inside you’ll find instructions like …

Combine everything in a sauce pan and cook over low heat, dissolving the sugar while stirring. If you’re really depressed, just the fact that the sugar actually disappears into the fruit seems like a major win. So when it boils like its supposed to, and all you’ve done is turn up the heat, which is the next step, you’re almost having a good day. Now simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes, stirring near the end of the time so stuff doesn’t burn on the bottom and wreck how well things are going.

I want to meet Debby. I think we would be friends.

Today I used my Pomona’s Pectin for the first time, making some low-sugar:fruit (1:3) jam and no-sugar jam (with Erythritol). It’s cooling as I write this, so I’ll have results from the next taste test for you soon!

Another week of raspberry jam tests. (Thank god my father sent me a giant box of english muffins over the holidays!) This time, I compared seven raspberry jam recipes that used commercial pectin (five liquid, two powder) from six different recipe books. The ratio of fruit to sugar ranged from 2 (Wild Jams) to 0.5 (Well-Preserved).

I chose three jams to make:
#1 — liquid pectin, fruit to sugar ratio of 2, no added acid
#2 — liquid pectin, fruit to sugar ratio of 1, added acid
#3 — powdered pectin, fruit to sugar ratio of 0.7, added acid

And, the results are…

1) I don’t know what kind of raspberries the Wild Jams folks use, but a fruit to sugar ratio of 2 does not work. It makes raspberry syrup. After waiting 24 hours without a set, I emptied the jars, added sugar to achieve a ratio of 1, added some lemon juice, and boiled it all for 4 minutes. This achieved a perfect set. (and I saved a jar of the syrup to eat over vanilla ice cream!)

2) I can’t figure out why all the liquid pectin recipes say to boil for one minute. I found that I need to boil for 3-4 minutes or the jam doesn’t set. Batch #2 had to be emptied 24 hours later and boiled for 3 mins. After processing, and waiting 24 hours, I achieved a good set. Unlike powdered or homemade pectin, the liquid pectin jams seem to take longer to set. I was convinced I had 5 more jars of syrup until the next day.

3) Powdered pectin makes a lot more foam. See the jars to the left. I should have skimmed the foam before I canned the jam.

4) The more the jam is boiled, the darker it becomes. I noticed significant differences in batches that were re-boiled.

I have a pound of Pomona’s Pectin on the way — this is the pectin that uses calcium to set instead of sugar and acid. So, you can use as much or as little sugar as you’d like. Sounds fabulous to me.

This week, I’ve been researching options for producing jams commercially. If I want to sell jam at a reasonable price, I can’t keep buying my sugar at Whole Foods and my jars at the local Ace hardware store — I need to go wholesale. After much google-searching, I found a nearby jar company and a nearby bulk organic sugar company — both are in Lancaster, PA so I imagine I’ll be making a trip up to Amish country soon so that I can save on shipping.

By “cold-emailing” a dozen local food producers, I also found a local commercial kitchen whose owner enjoys incubating new food entrepreneurs. I’m going to do a test-run in a few weeks to see how much jam I can produce per hour.

Finally, I read a fabulous and inspiring (and perhaps the only?) jam memoir by a woman who owned a local jam business on Cape Cod (my “home”-Cape!). It has a few recipes, explains some of the ways she scaled up production, and, best of all, shares her reflections on the seasons of and reasons for preserving local fruits.

I spent my new year’s holiday making jam — five different varieties of raspberry jam — and we held the first Half Pint Harvest taste-test on New Year’s Day. All the jams were made from the same raspberries (Whole Foods, frozen), but the type and amount of sugar and pectin varied. The options were:

1) no pectin, 50% sugar
2) with homemade pectin, 25% sugar
3) with homemade pectin, 25% sugar + honey
4) with homemade pectin, 25% sugar + honey, no hot water bath
5) with homemade pectin, 25% sugar, added cranberries and orange
6) a popular organic store-bought raspberry jam

The winner: Cranberry-Rasberry (#5)
Everyone liked the cranberry orange variety (#5) the best, but that doesn’t tell us much expect that this group liked more complex jams.
The raspberry-only winner: Split decision between #2 and #3
Of the pure rasberry varieties, the group was split between #2 and #3. Some like the “flowery” flavor of the honeyed jam, while others like the “bright” flavor of the low-sugar variety.

The losers: Everyone thought #1 was too sweet, and that #6 was too runny. Variety #4 was generally judged too thick (though one panelist preferred this consistency, and the honey-lovers liked the flavor).

A couple notes:
– Using honey instead of sugar usually results in a softer gel. I replaced half of the sugar with honey, and noticed no significant difference in consistency between #2 and #3.
– I tried to test the effect of less boiling (no water bath, just hot fill seal) on one jar of the honeyed jam. We did find a consistency change (the water bath seemed to reduce the gelling), but couldn’t detect a flavor difference. The honey was a bit overpowering, though, so I might try this test again with just fruit, sugar, and pectin.

Today I made my own apple pectin. Yes, you can buy this in the store for a few dollars, but my goal is to make jams from local and organic produce. By making my own pectin, I can control the source and exact amount of pectin in my jams. It is also cheaper — especially if you can find discounted unripe damaged apples (aka “windblown” apples) at a local farm. Potential problems with using homemade pectin include 1) running out of it mid-way through the year 2) making everything taste like apples and 3) not achieving as good or as reliable a consistency as the store-bought stuff. We’ll see…

Here’s how I made the apple pectin:

Chop apples very roughly, keeping the skin, core, and seeds; and add 2 tbl lemon juice and enough water to cover the apples. Ideally, I’d use crab apples or unripe tart apples. It is winter, however, so I bought 7 big organic granny smith apples in the supermarket. I have no idea when they were picked. I covered them with 6 cups of water.

Cook apples and water for 45 minutes until it looks like this.

Strain for 12 hours. I am using several layers of cheesecloth inside a colander over a pot.

The next morning, I test the pectin to see if it is strong enough to gel. To do this, I mix a tablespoon each of rubbing alcohol and apple pectin in a small cup. If it strongly gels (sits on a fork) then I’m good to go. If not, then I need to boil it down to reduce the water content. As you can see from the photo at left, my pectin was slightly gelled, but dripped through the fork very easily.

After boiling it down ~25% (as measured by a marked wooden skewer), I test again. Because the test only works with cool pectin, I put a small cup of the reduced pectin in the freezer for a few minutes. Still thin. After boiling it down slightly more than 50% I achieve a thick gel (see photo at left). I’m guessing that less boiling is needed (and, therefore, a better yield is obtained) if you are able to find unripe apples, which have a lot more pectin per apple.

Here are two photos of before-boiling and after-boiling pectin. Note the color change from a pale yellow to a dark orange. Some sticky foam accumulated on the surface during boiling. I skimmed this off during the boiling process. The 7 large apples gave me just over 2 cups (2 half-pints) of reduced pectin. [In case you’re curious, the homemade pectin did end up costing ~70% as much as the store-bought liquid pectin (by the oz) — and this ratio could obviously be improved if I bought in bulk and in season.]

Now that I’ve come up with a name, and designed the website, logo, and blog, my next task is to come up with some standardized recipes. My jam-making thus far has been freewheeling. Whatever I happen to see at the market, or whatever sounds tasty that day. I’ve made jams like apple-pear-ginger marmalade and cranberry-pear-lemon jam. I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to the recipes I’ve used. They usually turn out pretty tasty, but, like the good folks at Cooks Illustrated, I’m on a scientific quest to find the best combinations of sugar, pectin, and acid.

First up…pectin. If you Google “pectin” you’ll find a wide variety of (sometimes quite passionate) opinions on using pectin in jams. Some jam-makers insist that the only authentic jams use no added pectin. Others say that jams with pectin keep more of the nutrients and flavor because of the shorter cooking time needed. And, then, there are those who make their own pectin from apples. I don’t know who’s right, but my plan is to make four types of the same jam — no pectin, store-bought powdered pectin, store-bought liquid pectin, and homemade apple pectin.

Welcome to Half Pint Harvest! This idea grew out of my love of food, my desire to preserve more of the seasonal harvest I found at the local farmers markets, and my dream of running my own business. We have a ways to go before we begin selling any jams, but, until then, I’ll be blogging about my experience of starting the business — from the fun part (testing the recipes) to the technical side (logistics of getting a license and finding a commercial kitchen).

Luckily, I’m not starting from complete scratch — I already know how to make and preserve jams, relishes, and salsas (see some 2007 gifts pictured at left); I know how to design a website and blog; and I’m pretty good with a budget. I have no idea, however, how to legally found a business; how to find and use a commercial kitchen; or how to get a product sold at farmers markets, stores, or supermarkets. But, it can’t be that hard, right? I am a rocket scientist, after all. (more on that later…)