It’s rhubarb week – every which way!
This recipe was given to me more then 20 years ago by a little old lady so who knows how old it is?
- 2 cups cooked rhubarb (simmer sliced stalks in water until soft)
- 1 cup canned crushed pineapple with juice - not exactly local but you could make it without
- the juice and grated rind from one orange – again not local
- 1 cup raisins
- 5 1/2 cups of sugar (I plan to try this next week using whey and pomona to get the sugar content down)
- 1/2 bottle Certo or one box of Certo (Certo is a pectin you can buy at any major grocers)
Combine all the ingredients except for the pectin in a 4 quart saucepan. Bring it to a rolling boil and boil it for one minute. Add the Certo, stirring constantly. Return it to a rolling boil and boil it for one minute. Whenever you boil sugar be very careful not to splash it on yourself!
Remove the pan from the heat and skim any surface bubbles off. Pour it into hot, sterilized canning jars and seal using a water bath.
Note that the seals used to line canning jar lids generally contain BPA which leaches into food when heated. Because of this I now freeze all my jams and jellies rather then canning. Another old time method I have not yet researched the health merits of is sealing with paraffin rather then lids.
In the past I’ve been gifted some jam sealed using this method before and wasn’t quite sure the best way to get the paraffin out. In the end I chunked it out using a butter knife but had to discard the top layer of jelly since the paraffin flaked off into it. If you have any canning advice or tips on removing paraffin please speak up!
As summer progresses I’ll be exploring more food preservation techniques using lacto-fermentation, drying and cellaring in an effort to be more green and more healthy. In the meantime it’s nice to have a few standard recipes that I know how to make.
Reinventing food is challenging but some days I just want to put the kitchen on auto pilot and enjoy the kiddos.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Laurie // Jun 5, 2010 at 8:12 am
Did you ever find a recipe for lacto-fermenting rhubarb?
2 admin // Jun 5, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Hi Laurie, I doubt you’ll find a recipe. I was going to use the NT berry jam one and just use rhubarb instead. It said it was only good for a couple months though.
3 DiannK // Jul 23, 2010 at 6:18 pm
To remove the paraffin, just run the tip of a sharp knife between the jar and the paraffin, just like unmolding gelatin. Then push down on one side of the paraffin and it pops out. Everyone used paraffin when I was growing up and it was extremely rare to see a jar spoil.
4 admin // Jul 26, 2010 at 9:21 am
Thanks Diann! I tried that but it just went down deep into the jar. It was a super thick coating and a narrow mouth jar. I ended up fishing out as much of the jelly as I could and transferring it to another container. It was so good!
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