Latest / Two Tools, No Clue / E3 Jams, Jellies, & Marmalade... Oh My!
Transcript
- Jey & Anna: Hey everybody. Welcome to Two Tools No Clue podcast. I'm Jeidan And I'm Anna. And today we have no clue about jams and jellies. And I guess by technicality marmalades too. ⁓ interesting. So I guess before we dive into it, we should maybe talk about what's going on around the homestead. What's going on? Okay, well, it currently is definitely still snowing. Still snowing. It's been snowing since yesterday and it hasn't stopped. Okay, maybe it stopped briefly, but it is snowing again. We're looking at it right now. What did you say we were at? 14 and what? 14.62 or something like that. Inches? Inches. Yep. Oh! I don't know if you guys can hear that, but if you can, that is our personal plow guy. Oh, yeah. Lucas out there doing his rounds up and running. Hallelujah. Yeah, she's looking right at me. Knock on wood. She's trying to behave. Stevie is our producer. I believe we've already told you all about her. I'm sure you've heard her. She's our black lab German Shepherd pup. She's not really a pup though. She's almost six years old this year. She's going to be six this year and she's looking at us with sad eyes trying to behave right now on her bed. So yay Stevie for behaving. We just went snowshoeing for like 45 minutes. So yeah, we're all pretty She should be tired. Fingers crossed. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. We have a trail on our property. super blessed to have the acreage that we do. ⁓ A good portion of it is kind of the woods area that surrounds our home. ⁓ It keeps us nice and secluded, but it also gave us the opportunity for a walking path for us, especially for Stevie. ⁓ It was one of the first projects that we completed on the homstead if you think about it. Anna went out there with a rake. ⁓ rake. And raked the whole thing it's it's about a mile long Yeah, it well, it's a quarter. It's a quarter of a mile Oh, you have to walk it four times four times to be a mile. Sorry. Okay, so a quarter of a mile When we first raked it it was Incredibly tough to get through that dense layer of it was yeah to the to the bottom of to the actual ground to the point where we went over to our friend's house after we did a big chunk of the raking and I could Barely move my arms. I I was in so much. It was a lot of work to never felt like that before like I pushed it too hard and we only have one rake Yeah, we're taking turns but it was a lot of work and like a quarter of a mile doesn't seem that long But it is a really nice walk. Yeah, we usually do it like at least once a day with Stevie so that you know We all we all get a little stretch Stevie gets her stretch It's nice and secluded, so she's off the leash. We don't have to worry about anybody. ⁓ But yeah, it's really cool to go snowshoeing on as well. ⁓ We did a little bit of off trail adventuring as well. ⁓ I ate shit and then Stevie decided to come help me, which actually just covered me completely in fresh powder. it was shoved snow straight in your face, right in my face. I instantly looked like Santa Claus. ⁓ But yeah, it was a lot of fun. But that's probably why she's being actually quiet, because she's exhausted. And so are we. Hopefully it stays that way. ⁓ well, we'll see. Jey's doing his notes on his iPad today, because he's fancy. ⁓ The pieces of paper stressed me out last time, and I feel like I messed up. But that's OK. ⁓ We have no clue what we're doing. Yeah, we have no clue what we're doing. Another thing that we got done over the weekend is we got a new desktop computer when I was editing. ⁓ honestly don't know how old that computer was. I got that computer for either Christmas or my birthday because my birthday is four days away from Christmas. So can never remember which, but probably when I was like 15. Wow. So it's like, I'm going to age you out. okay. Yikes. Okay. Well, it, it lasted. Um, but yeah, so we, we upgraded. It's still, still fairly basic, but it's newer. So it's working very well. I'm excited to do some editing later on it. Um, and then we're still trying to figure out these mics. Obviously last week we had these completely ass backwards. Um, but, uh, yeah, so we're just trying to figure. We're doing our best. Two, two, two. No zero negative. But yeah, so I guess that's what's really been going on. Can you think of anything else? No. Okay, well, dating, Jeidan's findings of the week begins, I ⁓ Jams and jellies, your specialty. ⁓ I will start that really quick. I love making jams and jellies ⁓ so much that when we caught Miss Jam Jam, as you can tell, ⁓ said, okay, Anna, can keep this cat. But her name is going to be Jam because it was the start of jam season because it was the start of jam season and I was getting my jam on. We were inspired. We were inspired and we actually would call her Jam Jam. And Jammy Jam because she's. cray cray you know, in a good way, jungle kitty way. Well, I was like, are we sure we don't want to name her Bam Bam? Yeah, like the Flintstones. ⁓ But no she has to ping around the walls everywhere. It ⁓ she was very feral at one point, but now she's a cutie pie. And we're talking about if we kept the stray kitten that we caught, we would name it either jelly or ⁓ Because they're sisters. Yeah, they're they're related somehow, some way. Got to at least cousins. ⁓ sisters from another mister's maybe I think is what's going on there. Yeah. ⁓ OK, so anyway. already sidetracked that's fine ⁓ we're gonna start with the first jam recipe so the first jam recipe was written in the first known cookbook de re coquinaria the art of cooking it's attributed to marcus gavius apicius believed to be ⁓ fake name. Oh yeah. He just I think he just picked it up. He picked it. But whatever people. What language is that? well he comes from Rome so like Latin. Yeah. Latin back then I'm guessing the book contains over 500 recipes many using Indian spices as well as a recipe for soft fruit heated with honey. The mixture was then cooled and stored. create one of the earliest recorded jams, forms of jam. This early type of jam was often served as a delicacy at the end of a meal. So it like a dessert. Just by itself? Yeah. Just a bowl of jam. I just, you know, I think it's so funny because back then, like people really did not eat that much. That is true. Yeah. And I was like two tablespoons of jam would be dessert. Could you imagine? No offense America. Could you imagine giving any American two tablespoons of any type of jam as their dessert? Nothing else. The only place that happens I feel like is those super fancy restaurants where you get like a teeny tiny dish, but you get like 20 of And that's what it was right? Like these kings and queens would be like look what I can make and preserve. Like eat this. My favorite thing to think about is like only royalty could wear the color purple back in the day, but now anyone can wear the color purple. I to be like, I'm like, I get to sleep in a very comfortable bed. Exactly. Yeah. King size. When I'm feeling down about my life, I like to pick myself up by looking around and being like only royalty could have. What I have right now. Next time just have two tablespoons of jam or jelly and you will be royalty. me tell you. Yum yum. Yeah so marmalade the first marmalade is believed to have been invented in 1561 by the physician to marry Queen of Scots. He's got love of scone and jam. Why? Why was it invented? He used crushed oranges and sugar as a remedy for her sea sickness. Interesting. What makes it different than jelly? We're going to get into that. Don't worry. Although the earlier book ⁓ by Nostradamus also includes a recipe for candied orange peel. So there's like an earlier recipe. Like you know like we were talking about in the first episode People really did use everything and that's big part of homesteading to me You know getting back to using everything that if you're not even if you're not You know growing it when you purchase something you use everything. Mm-hmm. That's all. Yeah Well, I just recently saw a video about how you make lemon pepper peppercorn or something like that and you take the peel of the lemon but you use like the inside of it and it's called something specific so I didn't know if it was that or if it was the whole thing. that brine? No. It's like the very inner flesh of the peel. Yeah. That's interesting. The bit that touches the lemon itself. Okay. Yeah. The super stringy part don't what it's called, but that's very interesting. But you're it's the whole peel that they're candying. Yeah. The whole thing. Interesting. That seems bitter. know. ⁓ Sea sickness be like that. I I mean, you're sick, you're sick. You'll try So We talked about my homeland, Scotland. Now we're going to to America. Jam in America, ⁓ John Chapman, nicknamed Johnny Appleseed. Lord. Is he a guy? I guess so. Apparently. Listen to this. was one pioneer who helped bring- us back in the day. I feel like the story that they told keep saying back in the day like I'm 60 years old. You're not there yet, Anna, don't worry. But I feel like the story we have of him is like not this one. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, ⁓ John Chapman, nicknamed Johnny Appleseed was one pioneer who helped to bring jam to the USA. He planted apple trees throughout large parts of the Midwest during the 1800s with the hope that people would make their own ciders and preserves. So that's true. I that wasn't true. No, that was, I that was a myth. No, that's real. I read so many different articles about it. Cause I was like, what is this bullshit right now? I don't know what to believe anymore. Jerome Monroe Smucker from Ohio who was just one person to do so. He opened a cider mill. Smucker. Wait, when is this? In 1897. Wow, he got right on it. From Ohio was just one person to do so and he opened a cider mill in 1897 with fruit from trees that Chapman had planted. After a few years, he and his wife began to make an apple butter, a type of sweet apple sauce made using sugar. I've made that I love apple butter. It's so good. And it's not actually butter. Apple butter. No, I thought it was like you melt down the butter and then you add your little like concoction of muddled apples or whatever. But there is no butter involved in apple and fruit butter. Yeah. In general. All apples. I think it's better. I love it. ⁓ So he and his wife began to make apple butter, which she sold from a horse-drawn wagon. 1918, the American company, yeah, honestly, you know, go get it. In 1918, the American company Welch's began producing its first jam product, Grape-a-Lade. The entire inventory was bought by the U.S. Army and shipped to troops during the First World War. and soldiers demanded it demanded more of the product upon returning. And that's really the only reason that it stuck around. grapalade sounds like a drink. Yeah, but it was jam ⁓ In 1923, Welch's launched. It's not yet ready. ⁓ 1923 Welch's launched its conquered grape jelly, which is still available today. Wow. It was because of the troops for they came back and they were like, where the hell is the grapalade ⁓ love that shit. Where is it? Yeah. I just think that's really cool. Is it the same recipe or have they changed it? I'm sure they've changed. Well, I'm not. I feel like maybe they've changed it. ⁓ Recipes have changed like so much. Yeah, I doubt it's the same recipe since 1923, but who knows? I don't know. I don't know. Welch's life. ⁓ Yeah, I thought that was really cool. I started to read about the histories of jams and preserves on freshways.co.uk. yep. It had a lot of history I didn't know. I'm always impressed when I learn why or how products have come to be or how they got popular, which is why it was like the army. Okay. Yeah. Right. And And what I learned next, was like, ⁓ my gosh, like actually the army. Like when I found out about Uncle Sam and how he's named that, you know, that story. I don't know the food crate. So the the military's food crate. Yeah, The food crates would show up and on it, it would say U.S. A.M. USA military And so they would joke Uncle Sam is sending us food. So that's where Uncle Sam came from. That's actually really funny. Yeah. The army dude like just a bunch of stuff comes from it. Jam, just in general, came from like rations for soldiers. Several points. Napoleon being one of the first ones. ⁓ So bonaparte and preservation. Like all you think of anyway. Okay. You just think about this little crazy man. And war and war and how good at killing he was people but really one of the things that he was really good at was like taking care of an army. preservation was one of them like genuine preserves. OK, so let's have this while jam remained popular amongst the upper classes, large scale production of jam and preserves wasn't possible until the discovery of pasteurization. Believe it or not, we can partly thank the French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte for the widespread production of jam. In 1785, Napoleon offered a reward to anyone who would find a way to preserve large quantities of food for soldiers on the move thought you said jam was already a thing by now. It was, but they couldn't preserve it for a very long time. And that's why it was for fancy folk. Gotcha. Because they didn't care. You know, they would, they would eat it and Matt, like it didn't matter how, how, because sugar, like sugar was hard to come by. Um, so. Well, yeah. So in 1785, Napoleon offered a reward to anyone who could find a way to preserve large quantities of food. for soldiers on the move. Inventor Nicholas Appert was the winner. He discovered, yeah, he did the damn thing. He discovered that boiling food at high temperatures and sealing it in an airtight container kept it safe. Boiling it in the jar. Yeah, like what we do. Yeah, canning as we know it. Really, really. He's known as the father of canning. Wow. What's his name? His name is Nicholas Appert. Appert? Yes. I don't know if I'm saying that right. Yeah. Thank you. Nicholas. ⁓ but yeah, he's known as the father of canning and his methods allowed all different types of food to be safely preserved in containers. These findings were then built upon by a Louis Pasteur who would go on to develop pasteurization in the next century. So I can preserve my blueberry jam because of him. I can appreciate that. Yeah. I that was pretty cool. ⁓ so I know you were asking earlier what the difference is between all of these three things. So that's what we're going to go over now. Yeah. So tell me, tell me at all. What's in jam, jelly and marmalade. To answer this question, I use another website. I can, I, you need to look at this website too, because I got lost in this for a very long time. I found a lot of helpful information for some of my other, um, ones that I just started researching right now. it that geographic? Geojangle? it's not I still recommend Geojangle to anybody who's just a curious being. Okay. Like Anna's making fun of me, but she's going to go on there and be like, did you know? ⁓ Anyway, so this is called masterclass.com. ⁓ like I've been getting ads on Instagram for famous people. Go on there. Do classes? Yes. I didn't know they had free information. There's a lot of free ones and this is where I got this article from. yeah. And by the way, I'm not getting paid to tell you to go onto any of these websites. I'm just finding them and I want you to look at them We currently have no sponsors, but GeoJangle. If you want to sponsor me, GeoJangle, please master class. I'm not a master, but you I'll take your classes whatever. Anyway, so. One of the classes that they have is what's the difference between jam, jelly and marmalade. So here we are. Cool. Okay. ⁓ so jam is typically made from chunks of fruit chopped or crushed. So, you know, that's what we do with our berries. Honestly, we don't even really have to crush them up. ⁓ well, technically we do, but not before we put them in the pot. They simmer and then I have a crusher that I use just to crush them lightly but for the most part our berries stay ⁓ which is why it's considered a jam not a ⁓ Well one of the reasons because there's whole fruit going in ⁓ so it's cooked with sugar until the fruit reduces down and thickens to a spreadable consistency. Berries, grapes, and other small fruits are typically used as well as a larger cut up stone fruits like apricots, peaches, and plums and mangoes. We've done mangoes before. ⁓ ⁓ Jelly is the rigid cousin to Jam. The rigid cousin. Just as sweet. He's like grumpy. Yeah, but just as sweet but firm, smooth. love. Gelatinous, right? Because it's not... Jelly's all about that tough Yeah, it's like, you know, it's not crunchy peanut butter. It's a smooth peanut butter. Okay, yeah, yeah. It's often made from fruit juice that isn't suitable for Jam, but it doesn't... ⁓ contain enough, like natural, ⁓ pectin. So it, it often needs like more pectin. Okay. Then jam to actually make it, so that it, you know, makes it real. ⁓ so basically jelly is jam. That's not chunky. Yeah. It's like the juice. ⁓ Yeah. So like, okay. ⁓ You like strain example of this, right? Like when we make our. Apple cider jelly. Yeah, that's not made by us crushing up apples. Okay, and you know what mean? Like it is apple cider already. So it is a juice. So I know jelly to be like that because we made the violet jelly. Exactly. Yes. Yeah. In which we had to steep the jelly, the violet petals like tea in water in a mason jar. before, then use it straining out all the petals and just using the leftover water. But like how would you make blueberry jelly? Would you just have to strain? Yeah. Strain it? Yeah. So like if you were straining blueberries for whatever reason, that's what would happen. Okay. ⁓ I think sometimes people maybe crush them beforehand so that they can make both. Okay. Should we be doing that? No, not at all. think... Blueberries are always going to be blueberry jam. You're making blueberry jelly. think that's weird? Is there grape jam? Or is there only grape jelly? ⁓ there's grape grape jam. with with grapes. There's more seeds. So you do have to strain it. So I think that's why it ends up a jelly, because it does end up being the juices that they jam. I've never made grape jelly, but I think that's what it would be. Like, I don't know. Well, we have those wild, concord grapes growing off to the side of our house here. They're not very good though. They're very seedy, very small, and they taste like cough syrup. They're for the bats. ⁓ okay. So, but last but not least, a marmalade is a fruit preserve made from citrus fruits. The fruit, including the peel, is simmered. only. Yep. And it's including the peel. Gotcha. So like those fancy ones that you see with like little bits floating in it, that's marmalade. ⁓ It's simmered to a boiling water until soft and cooked with sugar to thicken. The end result can be lightly textured or gelatinous with larger chunks of rind throughout. The best types of fruit to make marmalade include orange, grapefruit, lemons, and kumquats. Kumquats. Yep. I love that word. Also, I will also say that marmalades are usually like Not fully better, but they got like a, have like a hint of bitterness because like the peels are in there. The rinds are in there. I don't know if I've ever had a marmalade, but I wrote a poem titled Marmalade, but I don't think I've ever actually eaten it. We can make some. so what is the difference between jam, jelly and marmalade? Think of jam, jelly and marmalade as members of the family, ⁓ all related, but a little different. All are made by heating fruit with sugar, which causes the fruit to lose liquid and the natural pectin releases the fruits to make thick, the jams and jellies to make it to firm up. ⁓ The difference between each on how much fruit is left in the final product is really at the end of the day. So jam has a lot. Jelly has none. It's only the fruit juice and the sugar That it's made of okay, Like how we steeped how you were saying how we steeped it, but by the end of it there were no petals in there Yeah, no That would be gross. But some people were like oh you you should have left them in For like aesthetic purposes. I was like I don't know. I don't think they understand I've seen that Maybe I feel like maybe we should try that when we do the dandelion jelly. Yeah, they just cause the petals are lot smaller. So it would be like the marmalade where it's just kind of like speckled in there. Yeah. Okay. Maybe we could try that. Last year we almost were able to do the dandelion jelly, but we, I got all the dandelions. I literally spent like an hour going around our yard, picking all the fricking dandelions. And I didn't realize that you can't use any of the green. You have to discard all that. have to like pull the tufts of yellow petals out of the flower. So here I am steeping everything All in one. Yeah. And so I couldn't it, but I ended up using the water as fertilizer for my indoor plants. Yeah, that was a good idea. I don't really know if it was helpful, but I mean, always good to use it for something. This year, I'm going to do it right. I love dandelion jelly it tastes like honey and I'm excited to make more violet jelly Yeah, that was good too. That was like it had like a Mixed berry flavor. Yeah, exactly mixed like very light mixed fruit spreads that you get in like little packets when you go to diners Yeah, not that strong though, it a very muted. flavor So yeah, that's what I have about jams, jellies, and marmalades. Good job, bebe Thank you. So I only have a few questions for the end. Oh. It's really just two questions. I think there's two very important questions when it comes to this topic. Which do you prefer? Oh. Jam, jelly, or marmalade? This reminds me, I had a question for you. OK. What then is considered cranberry sauce? What is cranberry sauce considered? Because you got the chunky cranberry sauce or the one that's shaped like a can. to be honest, cranberry sauce is a whole other But it's kind of like jelly. I'm sure you could spread it like jelly. but I bet like technically, okay, it would be cranberry jam. if you're making it with the whole berries. ⁓ true, I wonder what the And then it would be cranberry jelly if you're making it with just juice. What makes it sauce? I think people are just weird about it. have to do my own deep dive. Yeah, and I think there's like extra ingredients that get added to it because you can make a cranberry jam, but I feel like it's the same. And again, I'm not a cranberry person. I can eat my turkey dinner without it. Yeah. Well, I'm saying yeah, for you, I'm obsessed with cranberry. So I'm really not the one to talk about it, but like that's what I'm bringing it up. I think that's what it depends how what how you're making it. Okay, ⁓ well then between the three I've never had marmalade and I Not always a Chunk person. Yeah, so I'd say jelly. Okay. I'm a jam man. I love you like chunks. Yeah, I Make I want to know what's Yeah, it's so okay and the second important question What is your favorite flavor of jelly? Because you like jelly the best. think just grape jelly, if I'm being honest. I was going to say blueberry, but then that's blueberry jam. I like to make PB &Js, but use blueberry jam instead of grape jelly. That is very good. I guess I'm all over the board. Okay. So grape jelly is your favorite and then blueberry jam. Yeah. Okay. I would go with that too. I would say blueberry jam. And then for jelly, I would probably say like strawberry. ⁓ yummy. Not strawberry jam. I like strawberry jam, too. But like when we go out, you know, to a diner, it's usually like the mixed fruit one. So it kind of tastes like apples, but or or strawberries. yeah, that's that's what we got for this week. I'm excited to keep doing this with you guys. Once again, thanks for hanging in there with us. Yeah. Like episode, every episode we get a little bit more, more secure with what we're doing here. Yeah. I'm not all over the place. The first episode I had literally no idea what I was even saying. You're doing great. Thanks. I think you're doing a wonderful job. Thank you. I think you're doing a great job. Thanks. We're using our microphones correctly this time. Yeah. Hopefully it sounds that way. I think right now it sounds good. Like I have one plugged in, but it's like hard to tell right off of this. Heck yeah. So yeah. ⁓ well hit those socials one more time. So Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, you can follow us @twotoolsnocluepodcast. TikTok is @twotoolsnoclue. You can subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/twotoolsnoclue. And you can email us with your stories, your constructive criticisms, your ideas. Yeah, definitely topic ideas. Just your comments in general. Anything. You can send us that at twotoolsnocluepodcast@gmail.com. Heck yeah. All right. We'll catch you next time, guys. Stay safe out there. Bye. ⁓