Notes about Recipes in this book

• Green gooseberry jam with elderflower

  • eliza on February 21, 2021

    We have a small gooseberry bush at the allotment, and I often use the fruit to make this jam. I usually omit the elderflower. Good as a jam or mixed with some cider vinegar as an accompaniment to fish.

• Plum jam

  • eliza on October 10, 2019

    Great jam and very easy to make. I will omit the pits next time as I don't think they added anything.

  • MmeFleiss on June 29, 2019

    My aunt sent over ripe plums from her tree so I decided to reduce the sugar as suggested. I made 1/2 a recipe and only put in 1 cup of sugar. It still set beautifully despite reducing the sugar a pretty good amount. I’m wary about using pits for the almond flavor so I just put in about 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract at the start of cooking. I might add a bit more next time since I couldn’t taste it.

• Plum and apple mincemeat

  • eliza on October 11, 2019

    I had bought some local plums at the market, and so I made this mincemeat. The plums are cooked and puréed and mixed with the other ingredients before baking the mincemeat in the oven. There should be a note that it has to sit out for 12 hours before the final baking. The finished mincemeat tasted good just after cooking, and I'm sure it will improve as it matures. As the author says it's a bit lighter than regular mincemeat, as it contains no suet or butter. As such it is also vegan.

  • e_hothersall on September 13, 2020

    i make this every year

• Cider apple butter

  • eliza on September 27, 2022

    This made a tasty spread. I reduced the sugar since I used a ginger wine in mine which is much sweeter than the dry cider in the ingredients. If I made this again I would try the cider. This is basically an applesauce jam with extra notes from the alcohol and spices. Very easy to make.

• Compost heap jelly

  • eliza on February 21, 2021

    If you have a lot of apple cores and peels, or a crop of crab apples, this is a nice way to use them. I go a bit lighter on the citrus peel, resulting in a milder flavour.

• Pickled garlic

  • eliza on September 21, 2022

    I grew a lot of garlic this year, so I decided to try this pickle with a few heads. I made a half recipe; note that the liquid portion wasn’t enough to cover, possibly due to the jars I used and the size of the cloves. Used bay and fennel seed from the garden too. Stored mine in the fridge. Will update this in a few weeks when it’s had time to mature. Update: a good way to preserve garlic, can be used whenever garlic is called for in a recipe, liquid makes a nice addition to soups or as a marinade.

• Pickled Florence fennel

  • eliza on January 16, 2015

    This is an excellent pickle and is very easy to make. I grow fennel in the garden so I can make it each year. It's a great addition to sandwiches.

• Piccalilli

  • eliza on August 19, 2015

    I used romanesco cauliflower, yellow beans, and purple carrots for this. I made half recipe of veg but made extra sauce. Don't know how it will taste after a few weeks, but the little bit I tasted had good flavour, and it should mellow over time. Cutting the veg on the small side and using pint jars and a metal canning funnel are tips to remember when I make again. There's a video online of Pam making this pickle. A good way to preserve garden veggies, and one of the few ways I like to preserve green beans. I continue to make a half recipe of this as I just find it more manageable. Update: now eating this pickle, very good, will make again.

  • pomona on July 29, 2019

    I made this from the web recipe pre-2015. It was amazing, so good with cheese, ham, by itself. Sharp tasting and crunchy. On top of that the house smelled amazing during the 24 hour dry salting process.

• Blues and bay

  • eliza on July 28, 2015

    Used the oven method as described in the recipe and used smaller jars than she suggested. I usually do quite a few jars of bottled fruits at the same time, including pears, peaches, etc. This one was easy to do and I loved the combo of fresh bay leaves and the blueberries. I found the amounts of lemon juice and bay to be perfect with the blueberries. Will definitely make again along with the mulled pears also in this book.

• Mulled pears

  • eliza on March 01, 2016

    Very good pears. Made some in ginger wine and some in simple syrup and star anise and processed using oven method along with the blues and bay (also from this book)

• Quince and apple sauce

  • eliza on October 27, 2023

    A friend gave me some quinces so I made this with the addition of Cortland apples. Result was tasty and not too sweet. My yield was 2 pint jars; I didn’t water bath it, as this amount will be used quickly.

• Pontack (elderberry) sauce

  • eliza on March 13, 2021

    Made this today using foraged elderberries from the freezer. Easy to make but a bit time consuming. Most of the time is hands off though. I will rate it when it’s had time to mature.

• Hugh's prizewinning raspberry fridge jam

  • FJT on July 17, 2021

    This was so quick and easy to make. I wasn't sure it was going to set at all as it looked so liquid when it went into jars so I gave it an extra minute or two but I probably needn't have worried. As it is low sugar, the flavour of the fruit comes through beautifully. Will definitely make again.

  • MmeFleiss on March 05, 2015

    This is one of my favorite jam recipes and often use it as a template when making others. The lower sugar amount makes for a fresher-tasting jam.

  • etcjm on July 05, 2021

    Mine was more like a compote than a jam, but my jam sugar was probably well out of date. It is very fresh tasting. Ideal if you maybe have some but not a huge amount of fruit to use up.

• Pumpkin and quince chutney

  • pomona on July 03, 2022

    I made a half batch. Didn't have raisins, used sultanas. Didn't have horseradish root, used the same weight of ginger and a smidge extra chilli flakes. Tasted great when it finished cooking, fresh, sweet and fiery. Can't wait to try it again when it's matured.

• Elderflower cordial

  • eeeve on July 03, 2015

    A lovely cordial with a strong elderflowery taste; the recipe/method seemed like a bit of a faff at first, but didn't actually require that much of my time in the end. Will probably waterbath the filled bottles next time to extend the shelf life beyond four months and save some of this for winter (maybe even worth making double the amount).

• Figpote

  • eeeve on February 07, 2016

    I made this last October and just opened a jar - they taste good, but "just like figs" - meaning a little hint of booze or spice would have been nice, since we can't seem to detect much of the Earl Grey in the syrup. When I made it (with grapefruit juice instead of orange), I had to boil the syrup for much longer than 6-7 minutes (as stated) to reduce, but it never really reached a "thick" stage. The figs didn't fit into my two 270ml jars (recipe said it makes 2 x 250ml jars) and I had to really squash them in, resulting in burst figs. I only managed to fit 10 of the 12 figs in, which didn't leave much room for syrup. I also don't like the name "figpote", as the preserve is nothing like a compote, just soft figs in syrup - more like bottled fruit. I'll probably make it again, as the method is fairly easy and the jars do look nice on the shelf or as a gift, but will add some alcohol and/or spices.

• Plum leather

  • eeeve on August 27, 2018

    I've always shied away from making fruit leathers, thinking it would be too complicated. That's not the case at all, certainly not with plums - you just have to stone them, simmer them to a pulp, blend them (one is supposed to push the pulp through a sieve, but, you know...), spread the puree out on a baking tray or two and then it goes in the oven for 12+ hours. Our fruit leather took about 15 hours at 70 degrees, and there was a tiny patch in the middle that hadn't completely set. But the rest was great (and tasted great - sweet but not sugary)! And what fun to turn it into little roll-ups. Will probably make this again with the current Victoria plum glut.

• Souper mix

  • Barb_N on September 30, 2014

    This is sort of like a vegetable bouillon paste, although mine remained somewhat grainy due to an underpowered Cuisinart. It keeps for quite a while in the fridge, and I froze some in ice cube trays which extended its life. It has lots of salt to preserve it so make sure to taste before adding any more.

• Pickled onions

  • MmeFleiss on May 13, 2017

    Tasty, but I will definitely reheat the vinegar next time as these are way too crunchy even after 6 weeks in the brine.

• Pickled peaches

  • lils74 on May 18, 2023

    Made this day before yesterday, played a little fast and loose with proportions, using what I had (also cut up the peaches since they were small and had those seeds that split in half). Ate some fresh with cheese and bread--tasty but also confusing as I wasn't quite sure what and how this was supposed to be. Liked it though! Put aside a jar to sit for the recommended month and will report back then.

• Spicy crab apple jelly

  • TereTere on March 10, 2016

    Because I don't have a sweet tooth I flexed this slightly to 7 parts sugar to 10 liquid and added the juice of a lemon. Very simple and easy. Set came out slightly later, around 15 mins IIRC. Don't be scared to not stir, and I loved that you don't skim to the end, meant I could get on with other kitchen stuff rather than hovering over the pan. Put the saucer to test set in the freezer to get even colder :)

• Redcurrant jelly

  • etcjm on July 27, 2021

    Lovely crop of redcurrants this year. Always use this recipe. So easy to do. As it says - no matter how tempted you are to get more juice out of them - do not squeeze the jelly bag as it does make it cloudy. I made more effort this year to get rid of the scum so that I ended up with lovely sparkly red jelly. It did take a little longer than the 8 minutes - I think I had to add on another 4 - hopefully I haven't overdone it! We'd only just ran of last year's so timed perfectly.

• Mum's black currant jam

  • etcjm on July 27, 2021

    Blackcurrant jam is my favourite. The birds beat me to them this year, so I only had a small amount to play with. Easy as anything. Where it tells you to let it sit for a little while before putting in the jars - please do. It does mean that the jam has fruit throughout the jar, rather than just at the top. This is the jam I hide behind the chutney to eat with my scones!

• Rose-petal jelly

  • PBling on December 16, 2021

    There is no recipe for rose petal jelly in the US edition that I have