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Cranberry Christmas Jam nice for gift baskets

M

MsMai

New member
Cranberry Christmas Jam

1 cup Cranberries
2 cups Sugar
1 (10 ounce) package Strawberries
1 package Knox (brand) Gelatin

1. Put cranberries in a blender. Cover and turn on and off until berries
are chopped. Empty into a saucepan and add strawberries (smash the
strawberries if they are big). Bring to a boil.

2. Add sugar and boil 8 to 10 minutes (be careful, this may splatter). Add
gelatin and stir well. Simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Pour into jelly jars. Jars may be sealed with a thin coat of melted paraffin for gift baskets (wax for canning). I refrigerate it and don't use the wax.

Fills 5 (4 ounce) jelly jars.
 
This sounds yummy, MsMai!

I'm allergic to strawberries, so I might try cherries... but golly anyway... YUM!

I can just taste it slthered onto a crunchy, buttered English Muffin now!
 
chubbyalaskagriz said:
This sounds yummy, MsMai!

I'm allergic to strawberries, so I might try cherries... but golly anyway... YUM!

I can just taste it slthered onto a crunchy, buttered English Muffin now!
Click to expand...

Oh I LOVE strawberry jam on freshly baked biscuits ahhhh nothing better!
 
Use of paraffin wax for sealing is an outdated and unsafe method of sealing. Refrigerating is the ONLY safe thing to do for this recipe. It is also not a 'canning' recipe and cannot safely be canned since it uses gelatin, a meat product.
 
I appreciate your concern and have read that on some of the forums but I use it annually and have had no problems with it; however, I do not use it for this since it is for gift baskets that are used immediately. Also use it in Christmas candies.
 
I'm not concerned about what you may do in your own home (though a prayer goes out to the people you give the stuff too), but I'm concerned when such outdated recipes are made public and unknowledgeable people somehow think it is safe because it was posted here.

Botulism poisoning is not something that just makes you sick, it kills.
 
Again, your concern is appreciated. I am very

familiar with botulism; the danger is there in many, many foods. I am not worried about using it is this recipe, which is a newby, not at all an outdated one.

If anyone is worried about the recipe I am sure they would exercise their personal judgement in whether or not they want to use it. :) I haven't killed anyone yet and I have a couple of cook books out there.
 
I too am a keen appreciator of kitchen safety and proper sanitation. In commercial kitchens I've ran, many have viewed my concerns as over-the-top, or extreme.

Some practices though- often seem less of a priority- or lower on the concern scale. So I can clearly see the points made by both CanMan AND MsMai.

I definitely appreciate and identify with the issue CanMan brings up about jellies, jams and parafin as a sealer, but I grew up eating such homemade products sealed in parafin. In fact, the kids in my family used to fight over who got the solid disc of wax to lick clean when Mom popped it off a new dish or jar of sour-grape jelly or blackberry preserves.

We were raised in an old farm house and leased our land out to farmers (my Dad worked in a factory), and we always had a huge garden. Mom and my aunts all canned and put-up foods. Now and then we'd go into the cellar and find a qt. jar with a bad seal, or a loose ring- and we'd always throw it away. But I cannot recall ever getting sick from our home-processed foods.

Similarly, we left eggs and butter out at room temperature on the kitchen counter- I NEVER saw a refrigerated egg until my high school Home Ec classes (today NOT chilling eggs seems a foreign, archaic practice!) And I recall Dad hunting every November and hanging a deer in the barn for days (and sometimes our Falls were not that cool- often we saw warm, 50-60 degree Fall temperatures) before processing it.

Mind you- I am NOT promoting or recommending a return to the days when lesser practices were the norm. I'm simply offering observations and memories of these routine practices. Some sanitation practices to me seem much more urgent than others- but when feeding folks other than one's self, we must all keep others' safety in mind. Especially if we are feeding infants and toddlers, older folks, or those with illness and ailments.
 
Again, your concern is most appreciated. However, there are many more recipes posted

here with some ingredients that could kill any of us, e.g., tomatoes. I have never seen you post a warning about botulism in tomatoes, especially canned tomatoes. It is one of the most dangerous in fthe line of foods. It is right up there at the top. Improperly canned tomatoes are much more dangerous than wax on a jar of jelly.

Here is an excerpt from a Center for Disease Control and Prevention article regarding other foods that are canned commercially:

"As of August 24, 2007, eight cases of botulism have been reported to CDC from Indiana (2 cases), Texas (3 cases), and Ohio (3 cases). All eight persons were reported to have consumed hot dog chili sauce made by Castleberry's Food Company. The two cases in Indiana occurred in two persons who shared a meal that included Castleberry's hot dog chili sauce the day before illness onset. Botulinum toxin was identified in both patients' sera and leftovers containing hot dog chili sauce collected from the patients' refrigerator. The three cases in Texas occurred in two siblings and their mother, who shared a meal containing Castleberry's hot dog chili sauce the day before the siblings became ill. One person reported consuming the chili sauce in early August, after the product was recalled. Botulinum toxin was identified in leftover chili sauce collected from this patient's refrigerator.

Other foods that should be discarded are those recalled products with missing or unreadable "best by" dates; foods that may have been prepared with a recalled product; canned chili sauce, chili, beef stew, hash, corned beef hash, barbecue pork, barbecue beef, chip beef, Brunswick stew, sausage gravy or canned dog food if the brand is not known."

Also University of MD Medical Center excerpt:

"The foods most commonly contaminated are home-canned vegetables, cured pork and ham, smoked or raw fish, and honey or corn syrup."

Pal, I know you concern comes directly from the heart and I respect you for it. But, like Chubbs, my family grew up on home-grown and home-canned foods and believe me we were a healthy bunch. My Mom was very particular with her kitchen and canning methods. She took that extra step in processing her foods and in cleanliness. I learned from the best
 
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