01 May 2008

To dump or not to dump?

What do you do with all the fruit residue after harvesting the wine? I find it rather wasteful to dump them into the bin though they looked pretty unappetising after they've oxidised.

I remember reading from 周老師 that you can either make them into jam or preserved fruits. I am not a fan of both, but I thought jam sounds like a better idea since I can at least eat it with my bread. It should be consumed faster than preserved fruits.

So I set my hands to work on my grape residue. After removing the seeds from the fruits, I added a little water and blend them into a puree. Then I poured everything into a small saucepan, added about 5-6 tbsp of sugar and simmer it over low-medium heat, stirring constantly as the jam/paste started to get drier.



It wasn't really like those store-bought jam. I must have cooked it a little too dry (I cooked it for about an hour), trying to get rid of the alcohol from the jam. But it tasted great, a little sweet and sour, not much alcohol detected. Should go well with bread. I decided the next strawberry jam I make, I will try to make it a little wetter.


After note (added on 2/5/08):
I learnt from a fellow forum mate that what I've made was actually fruit butter, a totally new term to me. Here's a little writeup on fruit butter, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A fruit butter is a sweet spread made of fruit cooked to a paste, then lightly sweetened. It falls into the same category as jelly and jam. Apple butter is a common example.

The fruit is cooked at first, but not too much, as the fruit will burn and soon lose its sugary taste. However, if done right, the newly made fruit butter, true to its name, has the same texture, but different flavor, than regular butter.


Not too sure whether mine really fits the bill. I guess we shouldn't really bother that much as long as it tastes good.


Mood: pleased

2 comments:

Gina Choong said...

WF, I was just thinking..about this fruit butter thingy..maybe you can use it as a mochi filling? :p

KWF said...

Gina, probably not. Though it's drier than normal jam, it's still on the wet side. Wrapping it in mochi will definitely be a great challenge!