UTENSILS & EQUIPMENT
These may be essential or non-essential, but they are designed to make your life easier and to ensure that cooking becomes a pleasure rather than a chore. They are also designed to prevent mistakes and accidents. Assemble all your equipment before you start otherwise you may find that the jam has burnt whilst you search for that essential wooden spoon.
GENERAL EQUIPMENT
You don’t need much specialist equipment for home preserving, but this list covers the basics – many of which you will have already.
GOOD LARGE SCALES OR WEIGHING MACHINE
Measuring jug with dry and liquid measures and preferably made of rigid polythene or heatproof glass. Also to be used for filling the jars. If you use stainless steel or enamel, you will find that the handles may get very hot.
selection of china, heatproof glass or rigid polythene basins or bowls, including several large ones. Do not leave juice to drip into, or fruit or vegetables to stand overnight in, metal basins.
Several large flat china dishes.
Wooden spoons: one long handled for stirring volcanic mixtures; one wide and deep for scooping; one flat and short for sieving; one ordinary one for general bashing about.
Perforated or slotted spoons, ideally wooden. If you use metal, make sure you do not leave it to stand in the pan as it will leave an aftertaste.
Sharp vegetable knife and a chopping knife.
Vegetable peeler and corer.
A potato masher, preferably wooden, for pulping.
A jelly bag or large squares of clean muslin and a spare piece to cut up for spice bags. Jelly bags are used to contain fruit pulp, which is then allowed to drain into a bowl in order that the juice obtained can be used to make a sparklingly clear jelly. Take a square of muslin and lay it, with the edges hanging over, across a colander placed over a deep bowl, throw the fruit pulp and juice into the muslin, gather up the four corners and tie them together, leaving a small loop with which to hang the ‘bag’ above the bowl. Remove the colander and leave the fruit to drip without pressing. Spice bags are the same thing in miniature and are used to tie whole spices or pips, peelings and cores into. Try not to leave these small bags in the preserve when potting as they can bear an unpleasant resemblance to a dead mouse!
Large nylon sieve. Do not use metal if you can help it, for it may react against some vegetables and fruit to leave a taste of ‘bad pennies’.
A mallet or blunt instrument for cracking kernels, etc.
Pestle and mortar or equivalent for pounding and grinding. If you decide to use the end of a wooden rolling pin in a basin, take care not to use too much force-I have knocked the bottom out of more basins than I care to remember.
Jam funnel and a narrow sauce funnel. Although neither of these is essential, they save waste and prevent the odd accident.
A juice extractor. To extract pure juice the best piece of equipment is a stand-up metal model with a handle to pull down and squeeze the juice from any citrus fruit without taking peel or pith. It also ensures the maximum amount of juice.
Measuring spoons.
Wooden board, clean cloths and oven glove.
Jam thermometer, which is very handy as it cuts out guesswork.
PRESERVING PANS
You can have a very tense time trying to identify what may have gone wrong with the preserve that you have just made. It may look and taste insipid and murky or refuse to set and quite frequently the answer may lie in the pan in which you cooked it.
A few pointers before you start will save you time and trouble:
A preserving pan should be large enough to take all the ingredients with plenty of room for the contents to rise up without boiling over. The wider the pan, the more quickly the liquid evaporates, hence the more rapid the set.
Try to use a preserving pan with two-handed grips, not long handles. In this way you will avoid catching the handle whilst working and you will be able to get a far firmer grip on a full, heavy pan. A side-to-side handle across the pan can be dangerous if it catches on its hooks and tips its contents over you and the floor. Remember that unless handles are absolutely well insulated, always wear kitchen gloves when holding pans.
Heavy-based and preferably copper-clad pans allow a slow and even distribution of heat, which prevents burning when bringing to the boil.
Do not leave preserves, chutneys, etc. to stand overnight in the preserving pan as this may taint the end product. Pans should be kept scrupulously clean, bright and shiny and if they have been kept in a cupboard, rinse them well before starting.
Stainless-steel pans are the most satisfactory in every way
Enamel pans are passable, but must be free from chips and scratches. However, the contents do tend to burn more easily.
Cast-iron pans with a good enamel finish and flameproof casseroles may be suitable, but are never very large.
Copper pans are glorious to look at, but they have several disadvantages. Red fruit will lose its colour when cooked in copper, although green fruit such as gooseberries will stay bright and clear whilst blackcurrants will lose much of their high vitamin C content and also refuse to set. Never cook recipes containing vinegar, for example chutney or pickles, in a copper pan as the vinegar reacts adversely with it and can form a toxic substance. Pickled gherkins, for instance, will look amazingly bright green and professional – they will also be lethal. Fruit and vegetables with high oxalic acid content, such as rhubarb, sorrel and spinach, should not be cooked in copper.
Aluminium pans. The reasons against using copper pans also apply to aluminium.
Iron and brass pans should never be used.
A pressure cooker is both very good for cooking and for sterilising.
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
None of the following are essential, but they will certainly make your life easier:
A food processor with a slicing and shredding attachment. There are many excellent food processors on the market, but you don’t have to go for the top end of the range, you simply need an uncomplicated piece of equipment with variable speeds and an attachment that takes the hard work out of fruit and vegetable preparation.
A mincer or mincing machine.
A liquidiser is very handy. Most liquidised pulps have to be sieved as well, but it does cut out the hard labour. A coffee grinder also cuts the hard work out of grinding spices.
A microwave oven. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for times and quantities as each model varies. The amount of preserve made each time will be limited.
A slow cooker should be used in the following manner: never fill beyond the manufacturer’s advice; make sure that the mixture is hot when it is put into the cooker; and use medium heat. When the fruit, etc. is cooked, turn it out into a pan before adding the sugar and continuing the recipe. Using a slow cooker is useful for softening the peel of citrus fruit and other fruit