Did I mention that? I do it a lot, and often sell to friends, family, and at local fetes and fayres. This week I made a batch of strawberry in preparation for a relaunch of Southsea Greenhouse on Easter Monday, and as I was skimming the scum I got to thinking.
I dislike the term 'scum'. For those of you who don't make jam, scum is a kind of frothy foam that forms when jam is boiled. You can disperse a lot of it by adding a knob of butter to the jam after boiling and stirring thoroughly, but you'll often still end up with some around the edges. There's nothing disgusting about scum at all, it's just lots of tiny air bubbles that have formed and got trapped by the setting qualities of the jam, but for that reason, and aesthetics, you don't want it in your jars. I used to skim mine off and throw it away but a few batches ago I made a plum jam that was so foamy I filled an entire jar with the scum alone. I wouldn't sell it (of course!) but there's nowt wrong with eating it yourself! That night we had warm plum scum on vanilla ice-cream, and it was delicious! We've now polished off the whole jar ~ on toast, in porridge, on scones. You get a less intense hit of flavour due to the fact that it's so foamy, but Waste Not Want Not as they used to say in the War!
So the next time you make jam, consider making use of your scum, or if you prefer a more palatable term ~ the foam. Save it on a saucer or pot in the fridge, and dollop it liberally throughout your day. This morning I had scum on toast for breakfast. Yum Yum Yum ♥
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