McCarthy - Jam On: The Craft of Canning Fruit

LAENA M C CARTHY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

MICHAEL HARLAN TURKELL

VIKING STUDIO

VIKING STUDIO

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700,

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3

(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland

(a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell,

Victoria 3124, Australia

(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,

New Delhi 110 017, India

Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632,

New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,

Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:

80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in 2012 by Viking Studio,

a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Copyright Laena McCarthy, 2012

Photographs copyright Michael Harlan Turkell, 2012

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-1-101-57516-1

Printed in the United States of America

Set in Janson Text LT Std

Designed by Renato Stanisic

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

ALWAYS LEARNING

PEARSON

For my friends and cosmic family, who nourish with food,
laughter, art, music, and joy

3. GET YOUR JAM ON:
THE STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

5. PRESERVES, MARMALADE,
AND CHUTNEY

6. SUGAR-FREE JAM
AND FRUIT BUTTER

7. PICKLED FRUIT, SYRUPS,
AND SHRUBS

LAENAS FAVORITE
FRUIT FARMS

SEASONS OF FRUIT IN THE
NORTHEAST CALENDAR

H anging off the beam of my forklift in the middle of winter in Antarctica, trying desperately to kick the frozen forks open as the wind bore down on me across the frozen ocean, I would have laughed incredulously had someone told me that five years later I would be running my own jam and jelly business in New York City. But thats just where I ended up. I went from working on a remote research station with the United States Antarctic Program to starting my own preserved fruit manufacturing company a few years later. Life is strange and miraculous.

I began making jam in my early twenties, when I was a little wild and full of enthusiasm. I made jam every chance I could; I badgered experienced farm ladies to teach me their tricks, I experimented with recipes I found in cookbooks and online, and then I developed my own recipes. I started Anarchy in a Jar in 2009 with a friend in the kitchen of my Brooklyn apartment. I had no business experience and I wasnt a trained chef or even a jam expert. All I had was energy, drive, curiosity, and a bunch of nice friends to help me. My first sales were at tasting parties I held in my apartment, and with those successes, I moved on to a small food market that had just begun in the basement of a church in Brooklyn. Within a few months, my jam was being sold at Whole Foods Market, I had appeared on The Martha Stewart Show, and I was featured in T Magazine, the New York Times style magazine.

I was lucky. Something was in the air all over New York City, and it swept me up and gave me and my fledgling company some wings. Small food businesses were spontaneously commencing around New York in the summer and fall of 2009, and many of us got our start in that church basement. Soon celebrities and famous food writers were visiting, and the press swarmed with joy at the newfound niche: a food-production renaissance blossoming in Brooklyn!

On a quiet backstreet in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, you can usually find me cooking jam in my small industrial kitchen. As customers and friends breeze in and out of the beer and cheese shop in the front of my kitchen, I fill jar after jar with jam that infuses the shop and the streets outside with the delicious aroma of stewed fruit. Condensing fruit and sugar into their precious essence, I spend most mornings bent over steaming pots, making my unique and tasty jam, jelly, preserves, marmalade, chutney, and pickled fruit. How did an Antarctic science worker transform into such a jam queen?

Jam making is in my blood. My father is an expert home cook and my mother is an avid canner. Growing up in upstate New York, Id tag along with my mom as she gathered fruits and herbs, then Id hang out in the kitchen and help as she preserved summers bounty. In college, I became curious about food and food politics. The more I studied, the more I craved to cook and experiment with ingredients and flavors. The first batch of jam I made on my own was a disasterthere were strawberry stains all over my kitchen and the jam was the consistency of syrup. But I didnt give up. There was something there in the steady process and transformation of fresh fruit to preserved jam, and I was hooked.

When I was twenty-two, I spent a summer in western Massachusetts with friends and started making jam in earnest. I began to study flavor combinations and understand how different fruits needed varying levels of sugar and pectin. One of my friends was a nanny, and we would take the kids berry picking and jam in their beautiful kitchen in the afternoons as the kids napped. It was during that summer, on a warm night in August, high off the success of another jam session and excited by all life had to offer, that I thought, This stuff is so pure, so good, and so intensely flavoredits revolutionaryits anarchy in a jar!

Later, in my midtwenties, while traveling around the world in the off-months of my career with the United States Antarctic Program, I became more deeply interested in cooking and ingredients. Exploring the markets of Florence, Paris, and India, I found jams and preserves that blew my mind. Preserved Lemons? Pinot Noir Jelly? Apricot Rosemary Jam? I suddenly saw jam as a whole new creative canvas. Intrigued, I couldnt wait to get home and start experimenting.

When I returned to New York, I started making jam with a renewed focus, teaching friends how to make it and selling my creations at events and parties. Why did I make my own jam? I loved the process of condensing the essence of fruit into a pure and durable staple. I loved the chemical transformation that happens when you turn fresh fruit into a lasting substance. Most of all, I loved sharing what I made with others and seeing my passion and excitement passed along.

In 2005, there werent many interesting jams being widely sold in stores here in the States. I occasionally came across great-tasting jams at farm stands or markets in California, but they were usually very simple and supersweet. They were not the kinds of jams I craved, the kinds I made myself that I could eat every day and put on toast or have with cheese and meat, using it as a versatile condiment.