Apricot - lemon preserves, 2021

 

Domesticity with Apricots: 12.5 cups total

We bought apricots last week and also harvested close to twenty more from our very own tree, but it wasn't until today that we actually made a move on making this year's apricot preserves. Like the raspberry jam, it's pretty lemon forward which we both like a great deal. Whether it's everyone's cup of tea is another question, but then few people are as enthused about apricot preserves as I am. This year's batch is particularly deserving of its "summer sunshine in a jar" code name.

 After more calculating than one might think called for, we ended up weighing up 7 pounds of pitted apricots and cooking them in two separate batches. (That one of the burners had some sort of meltdown yesterday made things just that much more challenging.) We divided the apricots into two batches of 3.5 pounds each. For each batch we put

about 2.25 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of water

into a large pot and brought it to a boil before letting it simmer a bit until it became clear. While Scott was busy stirring that so it wouldn't stick and burn, I was chopping up the apricots into smallish bits so they'd cook faster and generally break down better. I added half of that chopped apricot (so about 1.75 pounds) to the sugar water and we cooked it over medium heat until it was all getting nicely melded and cooked down--about twentyish minutes, I think. The remainder of the apricot (another 1.75 pounds) then got added to the pot and all that cooked, again at mediumish heat with a lot of stirring and minimal neglect, until it all became a pleasing consistency--a mostly smoothish texture with some interesting chunks still--close to another half hour of cooking probably. When we thought it was close we added lemon juice and lemon zest. I had zested and juiced most of two lemons. I used probably 4 or 5 tablespoons of juice and half  the zest in the first pot and about the same in the second pot; we had a fair bit of lemon juice left over for the evening's cocktails.

The ladling into jars went pretty smoothly, aside from the time I was mistaken about having screwed the lid on properly; I'll just say that could have been much worse. Scott opted to give all the filled jars a water bath just to be thorough while I concentrated on quality testing with crackers and chevre.

Gradka would not have approved of snacking testing on the production floor.

But she would, I think, be pleased with this year's jewel-like tones.