Maceration Matters: 2 x Apricot Jam
This summer, a few jams came out of the kitchen: cherries with Meyer lemon, strawberry-rhubarb, dulce de tomate… The technique and basic ingredients were always the same: mix fruit with sugar, citrus juice and a little water, macerate a few minutes, cook low and slow until done. They were tolerably palatable, but not quite what I was looking for. Somehow, they always tasted “too cooked.” Perhaps I didn’t add enough sugar, or maybe I cooked them too long. Who knows, I’m not exactly the Fernand Point of jams, heck, I’m not even a Betty Crocker when it comes to this spread for bread.
Recently however, I was enlightened by a dear friend of mine, Sultana, who had just returned from a visit to Egypt. Her mother is something of an avid and famous cook amongst her neighbors and friends in Cairo, and her apricot jam is just one of the many foods she is loved and respected for.
Unfortunately, Sultana’s mother is also one of those cooks who guards recipes like family heirlooms, so Sultana was only able to coax some rather jumbled information out of her. But the gist of it was: short cooking times (meaning the fruit had to be cooked more than once), long maceration time, and a lot of fruit with very little sugar.
After plowing through several pounds of prunus, “2 x Apricot Jam” was conceived. Two macerations, two cooking times, and two days to make it (or three if you aren’t an early bird). Sounds long and tedious, but the epic difference between this fruity concoction and the ones I made before makes it worthwhile. This jam has an intense flavor, brightness and freshness which I’ve never experienced before.
My quasi-scientific theory as to why this worked: the double maceration is the key. Maceration is a process by which food is soaked in a flavored liquid to infuse that food with flavor, like cherries in brandy. The apricots got to take a long soak in their own natural juices (with a touch of lemon,) which were drawn out by the sugar, a substance that just loves itself some H2O, (“hydrophilic” in Bill Nye terms). The extraction of those natural juices broke down the fruit’s molecular structure, thereby exponentially shortening the cooking time. 25 minutes total, versus 1 hour + for the jams I made before.*
This jam is not cloyingly sweet, but rather tart. Just like me. *gasp* Just kidding! Or not. Ask me again later… In all seriousness, the result will really depend on the natural sweetness of the fruit. Feel free to add more sugar, but the cooking time may vary. For a floral twist, I added some lemon verbena sugar just to play around (those are the barely-discernible greenish bits in the pictures.) Didn’t seem to make too much of a difference. I’ll probably leave it out, or add more next time. No worries, though, regular sugar can be substituted.
I have no idea if Sultana’s mother would approve of this jam, but I’m really happy with the results and in love with the technique. Many thanks to my friend Sultana and her mother!
2 x APRICOT JAM
makes about 1 cup
INGREDIENTS:
1 pound apricots, cut in half, pits removed
1/4 C plus 2 tbls sugar
2 tsp lemon verbena sugar, or substitute 1 tsp regular sugar
4 tsp lemon juice
DIRECTIONS:
Combine everything in a glass or plastic container. Macerate overnight in refrigerator.
In a heavy-bottomed medium-sized pot, cook fruit mixture at a gentle simmer. The fruit should be stirred occasionally, or you can simply swirl the pot around if you want to keep the pieces intact. Skim off the scum. The fruit should start to break down and look translucent. About 15 minutes.
Remove pot from heat, cool, and return fruit mixture to the same storage container as before. Be sure to scrape everything out with a rubber spatula. Macerate for 12 hours in the fridge, or overnight.
Place the mixture in a small heavy-bottomed pot and cook again at a gentle simmer. Stir often, to prevent scorching. Cook about 10 minutes, or until it reaches jam consistency. Spoon a small amount on a cool plate to test.
Remove from heat when finished, cool, and store in an airtight container in the fridge. Not sure how long this lasts because ours was gone in less than a week!
TIP: The variety of apricot you use matters. Blenheims, Harcots and Belle Cerise work well. Avoid Royal Apricots at all costs for this technique, as they have very little water content and oxidize like there’s no tomorrow…
Ingredients mixed, ready to macerate.
Next day, ready for first cooking. The syrup tasted amazing.
Done cooking after 15 minutes.
12 hours later, time for second cooking in a smaller pot.
Fin.
*This all makes sense to me at least, but I could be wrong, I ain’t Bill Nye or Harold McGee!
6 comments
Indeed, I like the taste of a jelly or jam with less cooking time myself. I have also had the fun of dragging a recipe out of my wife’s 92 year-old grandmother.
I like the theory on maceration. I am wondering about the natural pectine as well. Do you think it would be activated by the liquids drawn out of the flesh? I remember my grandmother always telling me to have at least 1/3 unripe fruit for that purpose.
When you cook it low and slow, I think you are really just making a sugar syrup, and that is what is thickening the fruit, hence the over-cooked taste.
Thank you for the wonderful post.
Jason: Thank you so much for your helpful input!
In regards to the pectin: I did some research, and the general consensus seems to be that pectin is only activated through heat. However, I did read these interesting tidbits (you may already know all this, sorry if its repetitive):
“…The canned product gradually softened during storage, while water-soluble pectin in the syrup increased and proto-pectin in the fruit decreased…”
and: “…adding sugar causes some water to be drawn to the sugar molecules, leaving the Pectin molecules free to more easily get at and bind with each other, setting the preserve.”
So, I don’t know if maceration actually activates pectin from being insoluble to soluble, although the canning thing seems to suggest it might. Maceration with sugar in the mix definitely seems to aid in the pectin-bonding process (even when cool), at the very least. It does all seem to go hand-in-hand, somehow. Again, thanks for your input, gives me a few things to think about!
I am glad to help. I like your site, and you actually inspired me to make some jams with the wife this weekend.
just found your blog tonight – LOVE it. and this jam recipe, while i’ll have to make, oh, next year, i guess with apricots specifically. i always love adding a lil vanilla bean to apricots myself but the verbena is nice too.
Lindsey: Thank you! And yes, I wish had figured this out earlier at the peak of apricot season! Vanilla bean sounds like a great addition, by the way.
[...] season is long past, but I wanted to call out this jam method because it sounds like the product was [...]
Leave a Comment