Recipe: Quickest Fruit Jam

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• chop :

  to cut something into small, rough pieces using a blade.

• mash :

  to reduce food, like potatoes or bananas, to a soft, pulpy state by beating or pressure.

History of Jams, Jellies, and Preserves!

• Jams, jellies, and preserves are all fruit spreads. They vary in consistency, texture, and the amount of the original fruit used.
• Fruit spreads were a way to preserve fruit before home refrigeration became widely available in the early 20th century. It was also a way to eat fruit when it wasn't in season. 
• Jam became a thriving industry in England in the 19th century, especially after sugar duties were repealed in 1874. 
• Jelly is made from fruit juice. The fruit is crushed or mashed, and the pulp and seeds are strained out, leaving the juice. The juice is boiled and simmered with added pectin (gelling agent from fruit), sugar, and acid, like lemon juice or citric acid, to allow the jelly to become firm. It is the clearest, smoothest, and thinnest spread. 
• Jam is made from chopped or crushed fruit, so the pulp is included. If the fruit has seeds, they may also be included. Jam is heated with sugar and water. Some fruit has enough of its own pectin, but others require the addition of powdered pectin to help the jam set. It is thicker than jelly and less chunky than preserves. 
• Preserves are made with whole or large pieces of fruit. If the fruit has a rind or seeds, they may also be included. Sugar is primarily used to preserve the fruit, with acid added if needed. Pectin powder may be added if the fruit is low in pectin. Preserves are the thickest and chunkiest fruit spread.
• Marmalade is a type of preserve. It is made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits that are boiled in sugar and water. The Seville orange, a type of bitter orange, is high in pectin and is used to make orange marmalade in Britain.
• In the United States, products labeled "fruit spread" generally refer to jams or preserves with little to no added sugar.

Let's learn about England!

• England is ruled by a Monarch, a Prime Minister, and a Parliament. Windsor Castle is the oldest royal castle in the world that is still being used by the royal family.
• England is on the island of Great Britain, along with Wales and Scotland. It is also part of the United Kingdom, which consists of those three countries and Northern Ireland. 
• Did you know that there's no place in the UK that is more than 70 miles from the sea?! 
• Stonehenge is a construction of immense stones that the early inhabitants of what's now Wiltshire, England, began building around 3100 BCE. The final sections were completed around 1600 BCE. Scientists are still not sure how or why they built it. One theory for its purpose is an astronomical observatory. It is very popular with tourists.
• Other popular tourist spots in England include the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament (Palace of Westminster), the Roman Baths and the city of Bath, and the Lake District.  
• London, the capital city, wasn't always called that. In the past, its name was Londonium.
• England took part in the briefest war in history. They fought Zanzibar in 1896, and Zanzibar surrendered after just 38 minutes!
• There have been several influential English authors, but perhaps the most well-known is William Shakespeare, who wrote classics such as Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet.
• English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the World Wide Web.
• The British really like their sandwiches—they eat almost 11.5 billion a year!

What's It Like to Be a Kid in England?

• Most schools in England require students to wear a school uniform. 
• Sports kids play include football (soccer), cricket, rugby, tennis, netball (similar to basketball), and rounders (similar to baseball). They also play video games, watch the telly, and ride bikes or skateboards.
• Boxing Day is a unique holiday kids celebrate in England the day after Christmas, December 26. The official public holiday is the first weekday after Christmas if Boxing Day falls on a weekend. When the English created the holiday, it was the day to share the contents of alms boxes with the poor. Today, it is mostly a day off from school and work, although some small gifts may be given out to family and employees, or collected to give to the poor.
• English kids may have different names for everyday items also found in the United States. For example, a kid will call his mom "mum." Their backyard is a "garden." A big truck is called a "lorry," and the trunk of a car is a "boot." Biscuits in the US are closest to the British "scones," and cookies in England are "biscuits." A TV is usually called a "telly." Bags of chips are referred to as bags of "crisps." French fries, like those from a fast-food hamburger place, might be called "fries," but if they are thicker, like the ones typically served with batter-fried fish, they're called "chips" (fish and chips). Finally, kids call the fish sticks they might have for lunch "fish fingers.