Lets face it, there are a lot of recipes out there on how to make Rhubarb jam. This is the wing it method I developed two years ago. First go pick you some Rhubarb, dont worry about how much you are doing or how many cups it will cut into, just pick as much as you can. The problem with recipes is that I would go pick mine at a friends get home and not have enough. Or just too much and didnt know what to do with. So just go pick a good big batch. Once you get it home cut it into sections kinda like you would celery. Well make sure you have cut leaves and root/stem bottoms off..then cut into sections. (sorry I dont have the pretty red rhubarb like my friend..I have green)
Put them in a food processor and chop them into tiny pieces. Many take the time to cut them into little pieces but hello I have stuff to do..just chop them up.
Once they are chopped place them in a bowl and kinda determine how much you got. My hands if I grab a large chunk are about 2 cups. So here is 3-2cup piles approximately.
So you are going to need sugar. How much depends on how much rhubarb you have and how sweet you like your jam. My method is start with almost the amount of sugar equal to the rhubarb. In my case I have about 6 cups of rhubarb..so I measure out 4 cups and pour it on top the rhubarb in my bowl. Then I measure out another 2 cups and set it up on my stove. Let the rhubarb set with your sugar mixed it for a while. Just leave it on the table or counter and start your hot water bath. I have found with jam/jelly/preserve whatever you want to call it, its best to hot water bath just to make sure. I've had to throw out containers that looked like they sealed then grew a lovely toxic mold. So I use my pressure canner for my hot water bath. I have another electric stove in my breezeway that I can on because I have a ceramic cooktop and it doesnt fair well with canning. Fill it up so that your jars will fit under the water..mine is about halfway because I am going to do pints. You can always add water later if needed and wait for it to boil again.
I also place my lid on without the rubber ring..just kinda sitting on top. Helps keep the heat in. So now your rhubarb is sitting in sugar, your hot water bath is going, and now you need to wash your jars. Once you get canning more you can kinda tell how many jars you need. I always wash 3 or 4 more than I think I need lol. I seem to always under-judge how many. Once your jars are washed fill them with hot hot water and then set them in the sink and fill that up.
I washed 6 and then one jelly jar. Its a good idea to wash a smaller size jar because your batch wont always come out even. You can either hot water this if its a full jar or place it in the fridge to eat. Wash your rings and seals too and set them aside. Then take a wet wash rag. I use one of my older ones and then place it next to your pan that you will be cooking rhubarb in. This is so when your filling your jars you dont get sticky rhubarb jelly on the stove and it dry. That stuff never comes off! Gather your ladle, your funnel, and grab a bowl and put some hot water in the bottom. My jars are kinda far in the sink from my stove..so I place 3 or 4 jars in the bowl and pour out the hot water into the bowl before I fill the jar. You need your jars hot when you fill them or they will break.
Now your rhubarb should be fairly soupy.
(at this point I usually puree mine in the blender into a liquid)
Pour it into your stock pan and start it boiling. Make sure you stir it because it will boil fairly quickly. Once it boils turn the heat down to a nice slow boil because as this thickens it will spit at you and it hurts! Continue to stir and boil until it is a globby gross soft mess. Once it is this nasty mess you can do one of two things. You can add gelatin, pectin or any other thickening agent and hope its enough ( if it doesnt thicken in the end you have ice cream topping!) or you can do what I do and use corn starch. No one uses corn starch and I dont know why, but I havent died yet. I do want to say that we use our jelly within a years time, so I dont know the shelf life beyond that. I mix 2 or 3 TBS(I dont really measure that either) of corn starch with just enough COLD water to make a nice slightly runny paste. Then I pour it in SLOWLY into the stock pot while stirring.
I ended up using 3 of these spoons. Make sure you only add enough water so you can stir it, otherwise it wont thicken as well in the pan. Once you get this in and you probably will have to turn down the heat a little so you dont get spattered. As this boils it will thicken. Because we arent using measurements its hard for me to use pectin or anything because I dont know how much I actually have. Once it is thickened you want it to look like a very thick applesauce. The jelly will thicken a little..and I stress just a little when its cold in the fridge..so you want the jelly to be pretty thick.
Here is a picture of mine. You dont want to know how many pictures it took to get this one. The corn starch lightens the color a little. The stuff really is still green, this camera phone is odd making it look yellow but its not. Its just a lighter green.
Once everything looks good to go TASTE your jelly. Now because we are using corn starch it might have a slight starchy taste, this goes away for me..or at least I personally dont taste it later. This is where you can add more sugar to make it sweet. Rhubarb sours as it cans so make it sweet. Not so sweet you puke or anything but make it to where you say..man that has just a bit too much sugar. Continue tasting it to make sure its slightly sweet then pour it into your jars. I actually didnt need any more sugar so I was thankful for that. When you fill your jar, leave the space where the ring screws on.
Wipe the tops of the jars, place your lids on, and hot water bath for 20 minutes. When 20 min is done you want to take them out of the water bath and place them on a towel in a non draft area and then cover them with a towel and let them sit to cool. For clean up of your stock pan you can use the hot water from the sink, left over jars, or your bowl on the stove. I place everything sticky into my pan and use the hot water I have sitting around. If you use cold that stuff is like glue.
The batch I made this time did 3 pint jars and 1 jelly jar exactly. Had I used jelly jars it probably would have made 6 or 7. We just eat a lot of jelly so jelly jars are pointless really for us.
Time from start to finish for me was 1 hour. Other recipes you boil for hours and hours. Who has that kind of time?? I can handle 1 hour!
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