Five years ago I started to follow a blog called Food in Jars. At the time, I knew nothing about preserving fruits and vegetables, but I was drawn to the simplicity of the blog’s contents and the beautifully written words from jam expert and Philly resident Marisa McClellan. If you’ve watched Marisa teaching in person, she is a scientist in the kitchen, using precise cuts of peaches and berries while giving instruction about creating food in jars. She makes it all so easy with her step-by-step recipes.
New on bookshelves is Marisa’s third book, Naturally Sweet Food in Jars: 100 Preserves Made with Coconut, Maple, Honey, and More (Running Press, 2016). It contains a plethora of succulent and delicious recipes in which maple sugar, coconut sugar, honey and more are used rather than white, granulated sugars. Surprising flavors with new recipes are described on each page. Melissa’s writing style is like a beautiful conversation, and reading her book made me feel as though I was sitting in her kitchen having a cup of tea.
We recently met at the Free Library of Philadelphia to discuss her new book and general facets of jarring foods.
PA Eats: Explain the origins of Naturally Sweet Food in Jars, your third book.
Marisa McClellan: The idea for the book started to build more than five years ago, after I posted my very first honey-sweetened recipe on the blog. The response from my readers was positive and so I made a point of creating more recipes that used sweeteners other than sugar since they were so popular with my audience. I also found that I preferred eating the things I made with honey, maple or coconut sugar because they weren’t as aggressively sweet. From there, it seemed obvious that it was a good idea for a book!
What’s the biggest misconception that people have about canning?
People assume that it’s hard, that you need a ton of specialized equipment and that it’s incredibly time-consuming. While it can be labor-intensive, if you opt for smaller batch recipes and pick up just a couple of pieces of gear (most importantly, a jar lifter and a wide mouth funnel), it can be both satisfying and approachable.
What would you do with jackfruit? Sweet or savory?
According to the science, jackfruit is too low in acid to be canned on its own. I’d probably take the unripe fruit and turn it into a sweet and tangy pickle or chutney, to compensate for its low acidity.
Explain the importance of “bathing the jars” during canning.
The boiling water bath process is the step during which you put your clean, full and lidded jars in a pot of hot water and boil them for the amount of time prescribed by your recipe. This process does two things. First, it sterilizes the interior of the jar and the produce inside, so that it doesn’t spoil. Second, the heat of the water bath causes a pressure change inside the jar, which forces the air that you’ve left in the headspace to vent out of the jar. When the canning time is up and you remove the jar from the hot water, another pressure change occurs, which creates the necessary vacuum seal.
Of all the alternative sweeteners that are used in your book, which is your favorite, and why?
When I started writing the book, honey was my favorite sweetener, mostly because it was familiar and flavorful. These days, I’ve come to love coconut sugar, for its earthy, molasses-like flavor. It also performs much like granulated sugar, so its behavior is blessedly reliable.
Marisa added that she is “infatuated” with apricots and that they are perhaps her favorite fruit to prepare for jam, chutney, and the like.
The book is a lovely read, and the recipes are very easy to follow. As summer fruits become more bountiful, add Marisa’s book to your summer reading list and then head to the kitchen and get jamming with Naturally Sweet Food in Jars. It will change your summer. And in November, when it’s chilly and cold, you’ll be able to pop open a jar of your homemade jam, thanks to Marisa McClellan and her delicious recipes!
If you’re planning to preserve some summer fruits, canning supplies can be found at hardware stores, Walmart, Wegman’s, Target and other similar locations. Marisa reminds us to be sure to get a “wide mouth” funnel and a “jar lifter.”
Naturally Sweet Food in Jars is available now at bookstores everywhere, or find it online on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound and other online retailers. Find out more on the Running Press website.
- Photos: Char Nolan
