The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook [Hardcover]

Rachel Saunders (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 21, 2010

Not your grandma’s jam book, Blue Chair Fruit: Jam, Jelly & Marmalade is the definitive jam book of the 21st century approaching the nostalgic preserving kitchen with a modern sustainable eye. Author Rachel Saunders is the owner of the Bay Area’s artisanal jam producer, Blue Chair Fruit.

Rachel Saunders's The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook is the definitive jam and marmalade cookbook of the 21st century. In addition to offering more than 100 original jam, jelly, and marmalade recipes, master jam artisan Rachel Saunders shares all of her technical preserving knowledge, as well as her unique jam maker's perspective on fruit.

Rachel combines nostalgia with a modern, sustainable approach to creating fresh and vividly flavored preserves. The recipes are divided into chapters based on the seasons, and each chapter is organized by month and type of fruit. Sample recipes include Strawberry-Marsala Jam with Rosemary, Italian Lemon Marmalade, and Early Girl Tomato Jam.

More than 100 stunning photographs by Sara Remington illustrate each part of the preserving process--from the different stages of cooking to testing for doneness to the final canning stage. Each recipe includes an approximate yield and a suggested shelf life, in addition to details on recommended equipment, including Rachel's beloved copper jam pot. The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook gives all measurements by weight rather than volume, making it the most exact and reliable American jam book on the market. More than 20 recipe variations are provided, along with detailed information about common and rare fruits, hybrid varieties, and flavor combinations. Nothing is left to chance or overlooked; Rachel explains every aspect of jam and marmalade making in step-by-step detail. The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook is a one-of-a-kind, must-have resource for home and professional cooks alike.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Rachel is seriously passionate about jam. Her enthusiasm is evident on every page

and will inspire beginners as well as already devoted jam makers. Her precise

recipes and comprehensive information on fruit flavors and varieties will tell you

everything you need or want to know about the world of jams and jellies.”

–Emily Luchetti, executive pastry chef at Farallon and Waterbar restaurants

“Rachel Saunders has written a stunning book, and probably the only guide to jam

making I will ever need. Not only is The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook beautiful to look at,

it’s also utterly exhaustive: a smart, engaging, modern approach to an

old-fashioned art, with recipes from simple to surprising. Making jam isn’t hard, but

making great jam takes skill and an inspired touch, and Rachel offers us both.”

–Molly Wizenberg, author of A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table

“Everything you need to know to make superb jam is inside The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook, an inspiring work from a passionate artisan. Complete, clear, and easy-to-follow recipes, descriptions, and advice reflect Saunders’s expertise as both a home jam maker and a professional—a combination that is pure gold for new and experienced jam makers. The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook will make you want to roll up your sleeves and head for the kitchen by way of the market (or garden or farm) as soon as you possibly can.”

–Alice Medrich, author of Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate and Pure Dessert

About the Author

Rachel Saunders is the owner and founder of Blue Chair Fruit, a jam company specializing in sustainably farmed fruits of the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to cooking and creating all of Blue Chair's preserves, Rachel teaches year-round jam—and marmalade—making classes at her Oakland kitchen. A native of New York State, she studied France and the French language at Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts, and at La Sorbonne-Paris IV. She received her degree from Smith at age 20. This is her first book.

Online:

bluechairfruit.com

twitter.com/bluechairfruit

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (September 21, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740791435
• ISBN-13: 978-0740791437
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 1.6 x 10.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking by Ingredient > Fruits
  • #68 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Canning & Preserving

More About the Author

Rachel Saunders is the owner and founder of Blue Chair Fruit, a jam company specializing in sustainably farmed fruits of the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to cooking and creating all of Blue Chair's preserves, Rachel teaches year-round jam--and marmalade--making classes at her Oakland kitchen. A native of New York State, she studied France and the French language at Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts, and at La Sorbonne-Paris IV. She received her degree from Smith at age 20. This is her first book.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

172 of 198 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

By J. Holmes

Format: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.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Rachel is a goddess April 24, 2011

By daisyplums

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I haven't made jam for over 20 years, back when it was very difficult to find interesting pectin-free recipes, but when I saw this book, I knew I had to have it. While I can get Blue Chair jam locally (like the author, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area), the price makes me hesitate to throw a jar into my grocery cart, even though I'm well aware of how much labor goes into that little jar, and as much as I *love* Rachel's fig jam with ginger.

I was initially put off by all the full-page photographs of the author looking fey in her jammy wonderland--Rachel with vintage accessories, Rachel wandering through a misty orchard, Rachel caressing airbrushed fruit--I would have preferred, say, a photograph detailing how to skin a green almond. It's a gorgeous book and I wondered if its target audience was the folks who like to lie in bed and look at the pictures in cookbooks, but actually eat takeout much of the time.

My first recipe (strawberry-Meyer lemon marmalade) was a qualified success. The recipe specified covering lemon slices in a "medium" saucepan with one inch of water, but I think I used too large a pan, and ended up with too much water to cook off. I also couldn't get the hang of Rachel's method of testing when the jam is done, which involves putting a specific number of spoons in the freezer, and checking the texture of the jam as it sets up on a cold spoon. I omitted the rose geranium cuttings (there's a limit to the produce I can come up, even in the Bay Area). It was a very good marmalade, but a little tight in texture, as I'd overcooked it a bit.

For my second recipe (strawberry-kiwi jam), I went back to my tried-and-true method of testing the jam on a saucer in the fridge. Rachel's description of when the jam is done was spot-on. The jam was so delicious, I found myself repeatedly going to the fridge to eat a spoonful.

I've made kiwi marmalade before, but it was nothing like this. And I've made fig jam, but it was nothing like Rachel's. Now I've got the recipes for success. And now that I'm convinced Rachel's a goddess, I'm no longer irritated by the cookbook's adulatory images. In fact, I might frame one and put it up on my kitchen wall.

Are her produce lists esoteric? Yes, indeed. And she doesn't hesitate to call for esoteric and expensive liquors, as well: does your local liquor store even carry St. Germain elderflower liqueur, and would you be wiling to fork over $30 for a bottle to perfect your White Nectarine Jam with Elderflower and Green Almonds? There are ingredients in the book I've never even heard of, despite living in an affluent, food-obsessed area (what IS "pine cone bud syrup," anyway?) You can certainly adapt her methods to whatever produce is available in your area, and your jams will be infinitely superior to the pectin-stiffened ones in the Cooperative Extension recipe pamphlets, but you might still find the preciousness of some of the book overall to be off-putting.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR PREPARING JAMS AND MARMALADES October 24, 2010

By Gail Cooke HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format: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