Like lots of food junkies, I get my daily fix by subscribing to various Web sites that fill up my email inbox with regular missives, touting the latest, greatest trends. This week, I devoured the Genius Recipe column on Food52.com, which shared the Modernist Cuisine's one-ingredient ice cream. Frozen bananas whirred in a food processor! Brilliant!
But reading the text, I spotted a rare gaffe from the big-brained inventor/culinary pioneer (whose Modernist Cuisine At Home--co-authored with Maxime Bilet --comes out in October). In the Food 52 post, he suggested that bananas had so much pectin,"So much so that if you add them to strawberry jam, you can omit the pectin you would otherwise need to add."
Tsk, tsk, Dr. M. You DO NOT need to add pectin to jam.
WHAT? Why would you skip pectin? What's wrong with it? Isn't it a natural product?
That's the reaction I get from family and friends when I tell them I've kicked the pectin habit. Yes, pectin is derived from apples, but most of the commercial pectin available is pumped full of other stuff with long, chemical-sounding names like fumaric acid and dexdro-something-or-other. Besides, if you choose to skip pectin, you don't have to use as much sugar. Which means you taste more of the fruit.
One of my favorite jam-making guides is The Joy of Jams, Jellies and Other Sweet Preserves: 200 Classic and Contemporary Recipes Showcasing the Fabulous Flavors of Fresh Fruits. (With an emphasis on that last little bit!)
Author Linda Ziedrich includes tips for getting jams just thick enough, starting with a list of fruits that are naturally high in pectin. Blackberries fall in the medium category, though you'd never believe it based on the jam I made just yesterday from a huge haul of foraged berries in our neighborhood.
I made the small batch recipe and doubled it. (Even though Linda warns against that because of the jam's propensity to boil over.) It turned out beautifully! (Pictured here.) A little liquidy going into jars, but it firmed up nicely. No pectin needed.
Maybe I should send some to Nathan?
-- Leslie Kelly
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