Rhubarb, Strawberry, and Lemon Marmalade

This recipe was a bit of a stretch for me in many ways, but I decided to just go for it. So last Friday night before I went to bed, I started making my first batch of jam ever.
Note that this French rhubarb, compared its German cousin from a couple of weeks back, is shorter and slimmer, and probably has more attitude.

 I trimmed and sliced the rhubarb and most of those two baskets of very ripe strawberries, added lemon and sugar, and left the mixture to sit out overnight to macerate.

The next morning, it was time to finish the jam. I started by straining all the sugary juices out of the fruit. 

There was quite a lot of it. The jam making process to this point rather reminded me of making a pie filling the Rose Levy Berenbaum way.

 In any case, the syrup went on the stove with a candy thermometer. When I noticed that the syrup was boiling and the thermometer only registered 200, I realized I'd probably want to add the fruit at about 220 rather than the 230 called for.

 It seems really smart to cook the syrup first and then add the fruit for just a short time for maximum flavor and texture. Of course, most people I know who make jam on a regular basis use pectin (here in Europe, they sell sugar with pectin mixed in so that it's super easy to make jam) and thus don't cook their jam quite as much.

 The jam boiled and boiled. I tried the frozen saucer trick, but even after 15 minutes, I wasn't seeing a wrinkle. I gave up and decided it was done.

I took a rather European approach to my jars: I used old jars that I had run through the dishwasher. My German host mother and my mother-in-law have done this for years and have never had problems. And there it was: my first batch of jam. It wasn't that difficult (besides the inaccurate thermometer problem, which is one that seems to haunt me) and may give me the courage to branch out and try other jams.

So here is my Sunday morning café au lait, croissant, and strawberry-rhubarb jam. I liked this jam: it was a bit sweeter than I would ideally have liked (even though I halved all the ingredients except the lemon) but has a fresh, balanced taste. When the others finally showed up at breakfast, I offered them some homemade jam. "Wow, you made this?" Julia asked. "But you don't even like strawberry jam!" It's true: I enjoyed the freezer strawberry jam that my mom made, but I generally object to cooked strawberries. So chalk this one up to my sheer determination to try a new family of recipes. I can't say I regret it.