98 of 112 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great as coffee table food porn. Frustrating as a cookbook., January 25, 2011
This review is from: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook (Hardcover)
I'm giving this book three stars because I can't do what I'd really like to, which is to give it both five stars and one star at the same time. It is a beautiful, well-written yet disempowering, inspiring and infuriating collection of recipes and information.
Full-page photographs occupy nearly every other leaf of this massive volume; open it anywhere and you're almost certain to be assaulted by an intoxicating obscenity of color and texture that will tweak your salivary glands into involuntary action.
Less attractively, The Blue Chair never stops working very, very hard to sell you a particular fantasy lifestyle. In this respect it's evocative of early Martha Stewart, because the author herself is packaged in a panoply of pretty poses along with the fruit spreads. She appears over and over again -- picking fruit, holding fruit, cutting and stirring fruit. Always her clothing is impeccably matched to the fruit she is picking or the blossoms she is snipping. Always her hair is perfectly coiffed. Never is there a hint of effort or haste or dissarray. These images are so brazenly fantastic that I can't help feeling manipulated.
But perhaps I'm just in a sour mood? After all, isn't there a place for fantasy? Must I ascribe such dark motives? Might it all have been meant in good fun?
Maybe. But what most seriously damages this book for me is the sheer impracticality, often bordering on impossiblity, of so many of the recipes. The author runs her jam company in an affluent city, in one of the best areas of the country for fruit growers. It makes perfect sense for her to base her company there and to make the best of the amazing ingredients she has access to, but she does not seem aware of how fortunate she is to have such resources. Out of perfectionism or mere obliviousness, she's written a book the browsing of which is an exercise in frustration. If your local grocery or farmers' market doesn't offer bergamots, pluots, apriums, green almonds, olallieberries, boysenberries, elderberries, geranium blossoms, fresh currants, citrons, crabapples and quinces, then broad swaths of the recipes will be impossible to carry out. Others will come withing range only as compromised approximations, unless you can obtain preciously specific varieties of fruit like Rangpur limes, Flavorella plumcots, Santa Rosa plums, Montmorency cherries, Flavor King Pluots and Tempranillo grapes.
This is definitely not a bad book. The first forty-odd pages convey a nuanced understanding of the differences between various sorts of jams, jellies and marmalades. Jam-making techniques and processes are described in sensual terms that prepare the reader to understand and react to what they'll be seeing and hearing and smelling if they should actually decide to make some jam. Those early pages alone make the book worth a serious look. But my primary expectation of any cookbook is that it be empowering, that it help me prepare and enjoy foods that I couldn't have enjoyed without its help. In too many ways, this book provides the opposite experience. Browsing the recipes is like being teased on a playground, taunted with visions of fun that is largely out of reach.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR PREPARING JAMS AND MARMALADES, October 24, 2010
This review is from: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook (Hardcover)
Who can resist the honeyed taste of jam? Certainly not one of Lewis Carroll's characters who laments, "The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today." Not to worry with the wonderfully comprehensive guide, THE BLUE CHAIR JAM COOKBOOK, we can have jam every day in an apparent endless variety of that sweet spread. Whether your preference is for a plain lemon marmalade or strawberry jam you'll find variations of these and so much more in this 364 page tribute to preserves.
Founder of the Bay Area jam company Blue Chair Fruit Rachel Saunders has a passion for fruit which is evidenced in every recipe and mouth-watering illustration in this remarkable collection. She presents a loving, detailed discussions of various fruits, a technical section and, of course, her incomparable original recipes organized around the seasons of the year.
Okay, I admit it - initially I was intimidated by the thought of making jam. But soon happy memories of my grandmother's kitchen filled my mind, and I could see her stove covered with kettles and glistening jars of jams covering the kitchen counter. This is one of those "If I can do it, anyone can" comments: For me, the directions found with the recipes are step-by-step clear and precise. As in the recipe for Early Summer Peach Jam with Green Almonds, which begins with Day 1 and the preparation of the peaches. (To be placed in sugar and lemon juice and left to macerate in the refrigerator overnight.) Then on to Day 2 and the final steps. She specifies the type of utensils to be used ("...a copper preserving pan or two smaller rnonreactive kettles.") No need for guess-work when following her directions - even individual yields and shelf life are included. Clearly, this is someone who is dedicated to her craft and is happy to share the joy and fun of jam preparation with all.
While certainly precise in her recipes Saunders is far from a stickler for her preferences - she encourages cooks to prepare their own unique jams by following their preferences and tastes.
THE BLUE CHAIR JAM COOKBOOK is the ultimate definitive guide for preparing jam and marmalade throughout the year.
And, Blue Chair Fruit Co. is the ultimate place to find the fresh and distinctly flavored jams and marmalades prepared by Rachel and her team. We've been fortunate enough to try Damson Jam and Strawberry-Blood Orange Marmalade with Rosemary. Made from organic plums Damson Jam has a just-picked distinctive flavor and is filled with whole pieces of fruit - this is jam at its finest. The Marmalade glitters with colors of deep gold and orange slivers, while the flavor is robust, hearty, distinguished by a hint of rosemary - in a class of its own. These delights and many more may be found at www.bluechairfruit.com.
Highly recommended.
- Gail Cooke
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great but slightly flawed book., December 28, 2010
This review is from: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook (Hardcover)
The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook is a wonderful book filled with great ideas and recipes. The Crabapple Marmalade for instance is great tasting recipe. Despite the ideas the major flaw in this book is that it has not been translated for a home caner. The recipes which im sure are scaled down versions of the large batches that are use by the author for her company are still too complicated. Most home caners have maybe a weekend to do a recipe and providing recipes that take 3 days is far too long. Many of the wonderful accents used to add flavor to the jams are either hard to find or too expensive, pine code bud syrup for example costs 30 bucks for a small container. Despite all this I still recommend the book but dont by it expecting simple recipes that you can do in a weekend by purchasing products at the local farmstand.
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