Interesting fruit combinations jams/jellies

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summer57

Senior Cook
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I love making 'fancy' jams, and I've been using a few online recipes from Christine Ferber, an well-known pastry chef from France who makes high-end and creative jams & preserves.

Her technique is different from the usual recipes, and I love the results - the fruits are almost candied yet fresh-tasting, and suspended in the syrup. More like a traditional preserve. And her combinations - so creative!

I love her recipes so much that I bought her most recent book, Larousse des Confitures. It's in French. Even if you don't read French, there's enough pictures that you could figure it out! However, I read French, especially when it comes to French cuisine.


Some of the combos she uses include green apple and wild prune; dried fruit, apple slices & fresh walnuts; apple jelly with Ceylon breakfast tea; pineapple with wine; watermelon with citrus and candied ginger. Also unusual fruits, such as fresh dates, chestnuts, strawberry tree, passionfruit, and so many more.

It's so inspiring! I know what I'm giving for Christmas gifts this year! Jams!!
 
Not a jam, or jelly, but similar theme; I make a juice that the grandkids love, that we call monkey juice. It contains orange, lemon, lemon zest, avacado, and fruits I have on hand. I've put fresh seedless grapes, banana, black plumb, strawberries, blackberries, cranberries, watermellon, and others. All of the combinations have resulted in a delicious drink. It' just one step away from turning this into jam. I blend it all together until mostly smooth, but still with some texture from the pulp. If this was brought to a boil, with added sugar fore body, and pectine, it would make a great jam. You could even just mash the berries and other fruits , only blending the citrus to give it the texture of preserves. I just might have to try making this today.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Not combinations, but do a google search for some of the old-fashioned inexpensive recipes for things like tomato preserves, carrot marmalade, corncob jelly, etc...
 
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Not combinations, but do a google search for some of the old-fashioned inexpensive recipes for things like tomato preserves, carrot marmalade, corncob jelly, etc...
That's why I love those old fundraiser cookbooks with recipes handed down through the farmer families. So many tried & true preserves & pickles.

Some of my favourite oldtime preserve recipes are from Best Quebec Recipes of Bygone Days collected by Couillard & Normand.

Recipes in the Frementation section include Spruce Beer, Porter (made from barley grains), 'champagne' from fermented banana, oranges, lemons & raisins, along with various vegetable & fruit wines. Nothing was wasted in those days.

Of course, pretty much anything can be preserved/fermented. I just picked up the Noma Guide to Fermentation. Looking forward to trying a few recipes.

But I must say, I love the techniques and carefully selected combinations and methods in Ferber's books. She definitely knows her Confitures!
 
Ooh, does that cookbook of old Quebec recipes have pea soup or tourtière? I would love to see how those differ from modern recipes for those dishes.
 
Sadly, no recipe for either Tourtiere or pea soup. There is a recipe for Horse Bean soup, however lol.
There's a recipe for Meat Pie - just pork, potatoes, onions. Just s&p, no spices. This book's in English, not French.

Tourtiere is so variable, depending on the region, availability of ingredients, and the family preparing it.

This book has recipes collected from l'Islet, which is where my grandfather's family originated, back in the 1600s. That's one of the reasons I picked up this book.

I've made book's Cretons for my Gaspe father-in-law, he was pretty happy with it! As am I. A great recipe for leftover pork.
We've kinda slid away from jams & jellies, but... cretons do last a long time in the fridge, soooo....could call it 'preserved'.
 
Sadly, no recipe for either Tourtiere or pea soup. There is a recipe for Horse Bean soup, however lol.
There's a recipe for Meat Pie - just pork, potatoes, onions. Just s&p, no spices. This book's in English, not French.

Tourtiere is so variable, depending on the region, availability of ingredients, and the family preparing it.

This book has recipes collected from l'Islet, which is where my grandfather's family originated, back in the 1600s. That's one of the reasons I picked up this book.

I've made book's Cretons for my Gaspe father-in-law, he was pretty happy with it! As am I. A great recipe for leftover pork.
We've kinda slid away from jams & jellies, but... cretons do last a long time in the fridge, soooo....could call it 'preserved'.
Thank you for looking. It was mostly curiosity. I have a really good recipe from Madame Benoit, for tourtière. I adore good crétons. DH doesn't care for it, so I have to finish it off by myself. Every once in a while, I buy a jar from Les Viandes Charlevoix. It's really good. When it isn't very good (like most of the supermarket stuff), it's just a nasty, greasy, grey mess.
 
Years ago, my in-laws gave us a basket of goodies from their local farmers market for Christmas. It included a jar of FROG Jam (Fig Raspberry Orange Ginger), which I had never heard of before and have never seen anywhere since. So I found a recipe and made it myself. It's so good. Here, I served it with simit, a Turkish bread, and labneh. And here's the recipe: http://www.branappetit.com/2011/09/06/frog-jam/
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Now that I am harvesting our own lavender, I can make this again. Peach lavender jam.
 
... It included a jar of FROG Jam (Fig Raspberry Orange Ginger), which I had never heard of before and have never seen anywhere since. So I found a recipe and made it myself... Frog Jam – Bran Appetit
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Thank you, that sounds really good! Many people around here grow figs, and there's always a glut of fresh figs this time of year.
I'm always on the lookout for a good recipe!
 
Thank you, that sounds really good! Many people around here grow figs, and there's always a glut of fresh figs this time of year.
I'm always on the lookout for a good recipe!

GG, that sounds marvelous! I can see how it would work!

summer, I brought a fig tree I had bought the year before I moved here. It didn't make it thru the following winter. :( But I got 4 figs from it, very prolific as was only 4 years old, so tiny to produce all those figs. Such a shame but don't think I'll get another unless I can secure a good winter storage for it.
 
Fig trees get so big! It's a shame they aren't winter hardy. There's a few Greek families in the neighbourhood, they grow figs & olives. The figs often have 2 harvests; the second harvest is usually much smaller, with smaller figs, too.
 
I bought mine from a grower in St Lazare, Que. I could not believe his place, smack dab in the middle of suburbia. His back yard and garage were just full of fig trees. When they get too big to move in and out, he has built a frame work around them. He wraps them in plastic like a green house. He doesn't heat them and they seem to survive. It's like a forest back there.

You should be able to grow one (you do have a yard?) Vancouver/Richmond does not have really cold winters. Peach trees are no longer sold by the nurseries there - they just cannot survive the winters. St Lazare commonly has -20 to -30 and on occation for a week or two, -40 could hit. So how he keeps his going? have no idea!
 
Yes, I could easily grow a fig tree, if I still had my house. I'm in zone 8b, so can grow pretty much anything, though I'm in a condo now.

Some citrus varieties can overwinter here with minimal or no protection, if they're in the right part of the yard. Lol my neighbour's banana tree produces little bananas most summers.

Peaches - when my grandfather moved here, the first thing he planted was a peach tree. Peaches are a big crop here, the grocery stores are currently full of locally-grown fruit. We also get some peaches from eastern Washington State.

I am so sorry about your fig, and the difficulty trying to keep it alive in winter.

I cannot imagine having to live with such cold winters, but I guess you get used to it, and have the right clothes & boots. Me? I wear a lot of layers & gortex lol. I was born here, so rain's perfectly fine with me!
 
Thank you for looking. It was mostly curiosity. I have a really good recipe from Madame Benoit, for tourtière. I adore good crétons. DH doesn't care for it, so I have to finish it off by myself. Every once in a while, I buy a jar from Les Viandes Charlevoix. It's really good. When it isn't very good (like most of the supermarket stuff), it's just a nasty, greasy, grey mess.
Mme Benoit! The Queen of Canadian Cuisine! I have her 1987 Cooking for the Home. I also use her tourtiere recipe, and sometimes, Ricardo's. My grandmother's family was from France, so tourtiere wasn't really on the menu. Cousins would bring their versions to Christmas Eve dinners.
Thanks for the tip about Les Viandes Charlevoix, I'll look for it.
Because of your recommendation, I now buy duBreton sausages, pork & bacon. It's pricey but sometimes goes on sale (when it's near the best-before date). Excellent quality.
 
Mme Benoit! The Queen of Canadian Cuisine! I have her 1987 Cooking for the Home. I also use her tourtiere recipe, and sometimes, Ricardo's. My grandmother's family was from France, so tourtiere wasn't really on the menu. Cousins would bring their versions to Christmas Eve dinners.
Thanks for the tip about Les Viandes Charlevoix, I'll look for it.
Because of your recommendation, I now buy duBreton sausages, pork & bacon. It's pricey but sometimes goes on sale (when it's near the best-before date). Excellent quality.

I have her 1978 Cooking for the Home. I always use three kinds of meat, but haven't tried using veal. I really like using pork, beef, and lamb. Pork is the important one, in my experience.

I didn't think that duBreton sold as far away as BC. I wonder if Charlevoix does. BTW, their full name is Les Viandes Bio de Charlevoix. I really like their "smoked pork sausages" (hot dogs), but pricey. I get smoked lardons from them. I don't have a lot of spoons and having good quality bacon already cut into cubes is really handy. It's also easy to use up a 200 gram package before it goes off. We don't eat breakfast, so we seldom have bacon and eggs. It's more expensive per gram than cheap bacon, but it's less expensive than having a half a package of the cheap stuff go off.
 
I get duBreton at a small, locally-own grocery store, nothing fancy. I'll look for Charlevoix. The cubed lardons sound handy, for sure, especially for winter stews. If duBreton ship to a little independent store in BC, there's a chance that Charlevoix will do the same.
I'll keep my eyes open!
 
I get duBreton at a small, locally-own grocery store, nothing fancy. I'll look for Charlevoix. The cubed lardons sound handy, for sure, especially for winter stews. If duBreton ship to a little independent store in BC, there's a chance that Charlevoix will do the same.
I'll keep my eyes open!
I just thought I should warn you. I recently bought some duBreton kielbasa. It was already cooked. It was made in the US. It was not very good. It was edible, so we are trying to finish it off before it goes bad. We won't be getting that again.
 
taxy, it was always my understanding the kielbasa was a cooked sausage. I had always thought of it as a type of luncheon sausage or in that category. It was only a couple of years ago that I discovered you could even get it uncooked. It was usually only found at smaller butcher's in their meat display case along with breakfast and dinner sausages, the ones they made themselves.

You will know which they are when you find them, cooked are solid and firm and raw is soft and squishy.
 
Fruit jams and jellies are a great addition to any meal. They can be used to add flavor and texture to recipes, as well as to make desserts and snacks. Not only are they tasty, but they are also a great way to get creative in the kitchen. Combining different fruits, such as pineapple and mango, can create a truly unique and delicious jam that is sure to please any palate.
 
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