Last weekend I figured that I would take the last step necessary to becoming a fully domesticated woman by making my own strawberry jam. Richard eats PB&Js by the ton, so it was also just a matter of convenience. We were out of jam...we had strawberries. And I have to admit, I love home made strawberry jam. My mom makes some that has that bright pink/red color, and it smells and tastes just like fresh stawberries.However, as I was boiling the concoction just as the recipe said to do, the color darkened to a deep red, and the smell of fresh strawberries that I had been wafting up toward my face was no longer there. I pulled it off the stove, convinced that I had burned it, ruined it...whatever. I tasted it, and it definitely did not taste like fresh strawberry jam. I called my mom and moaned to her about how I had ruined the jam---it was dark and it smelled funny. My mom laughed and informed me that I had probably done it exactly right...that cooked strawberry jam DOES change color and smell. The kind that she makes is called strawberry freezer jam and involves no cooking at all (thus the bright color and fresh smell). It made sense...the strawberry jam I see in the stores is always very dark with those sickly grayish looking lumps of old strawberry. It didn't occur to me that cooking did that.
Anyway, after apologizing to Richard about ruining the jam that I was sure he would have loved...he informed me that he actually prefers the strawberry jam that I had made to fresh freezer jam (something about freezer jam being too runny like liquid pink foam or something like that).
So anyway, Richard has continued to enjoy his PB&Js, and I am revelling in the smugness of being able to boil strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice for 15 minutes!
Its amazing how every time I make a mistake in the kitchen and something turns out different than the way I wanted it to, how Richard ends up "preferring" the mistake....
Coincidence...or just a compassionate husband?
