lemonadesandwich's Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook
By Rachel Saunders
Andrews McMeel Publishing - 2010
This is a monster cookbook! Everything you could possibly want to know about jam. Its a fabulous reference, and the detailed instructions, the list of different fruits, the equipment recommendations and all of the other details are wonderful to have in the kitchen. Especially for someone new to the whole jam making process (like me).
Its has a heavy emphasis on fresh ingredients, which I found somewhat overwhelming as I do not live in California, so my options are much more limited. It also assumes that you will spent as much time as humanly possible on each batch of jam (the perfect batch of marmalade apparently takes 3 days!), which also becomes burdensome.
In my first batch of marmalade, I found I went back to a simpler cookbook for the actual recipe, but kept referring to this one throughout for tips and details about what I should be doing.
It's not a kitchen essential, but if you are going to make jam, this book is both inspirational and instructional.