Jam Sessions (Part 1)

Background:

• I am getting married next April.
• I owe an ungodly amount of money in student loans.
• I am having a very hard time legitimizing the expense of a wedding.
• I think bridal magazines and the knot must be on crack if they think I am going to drop $10,000 on a wedding, and feel like I kept it low-key.
• I whole-heartedly agree with the olds at work that wonder whatever happened to cake and punch.
• I question the necessity of wedding favors... I mean let's be honest; you know you throw that crap away when you get home.
• I have a sneaking suspicion that a more formal occasion is being expected than I am actually planning.
• Per the bridal propaganda mentioned above, artisanal foods are the new "it favor".
• My mom makes superb jam... like mind blowing.
• Southern California strawberries are delicious... large, red, juicy, flavorful and naturally sweet.
• What is more romantic than Strawberries and Champagne

Now that you are up to speed, my current project is to find/create the perfect Strawberry Champagne Jam recipe. The hope is for it to emphasize the natural sweetness and flavor of the strawberry as well as the light effervescence of the champagne.

I did a basic search for recipes online, and to my surprise only found one. One! It only called for two tablespoons of Champagne... that hardly seemed like enough. How are you supposed to taste the delicate flavor of the Champagne if you are only adding 2 Tablespoons? I did however find a recipe for Champagne Jelly... and I have my mother's jam recipe. SO... let's experiment, shall we?

Round One

The Ingredients:

• 2 Lbs. Strawberries
• 325 ml Champagne (I am actually using South Coast Winery's Spumante Diamante, which is a sparkling wine made from their Muscat Canelli. It is a sweeter sparkling wine with tropical overtones... I give it 5 stars for drink-ability, and they always tell you not to cook with something you wouldn't drink.)
• 6 Cups of Sugar
• 2 Tbls. Lemon Juice
  
• 1 Pkg. Pectin

The Process: I won't go into great detail here, mainly... I am doing the basic combine all ingredients (with the exception of the sugar) in a large stockpot, bring to a rolling boil stirring frequently, stir in sugar, boil hard for an additional minute, remove from heat, transfer into sterilized canning jars, blah, blah, blah, and process in a water bath for 5 to 10 minutes. If you aren't familiar with canning, I would suggest researching the how-to. I'm not going to outline it because I know myself, and I would undoubtedly leave out a very basic but very vital step that would ruin the quality (or worse the safety) of your jam. So for your safety and my conscience, we will leave it at that.

The Outcome: Too sweet! While the BF may argue this point, I thought the sugar was overwhelming. Great as an ice cream topping, but not so much on top of toast or a scone. The problem is that you need a certain level of sugar to work in conjunction with the pectin for your jam to set. I think for Round Two I will get the low-no sugar pectin. Yes there is a specific pectin for that. I didn't know either, but mothers are a fount of information. Also boiling the champagne throughout the "strawberries cooking" process, decreases its presence of flavor. I am thinking maybe it should be added post rolling boil. Success not achieved as far as jam goes, but we do have some very yummy strawberry sauce... Sundaes anyone?