Photograph from The Bitten Word What is freezer jam? So called because it keeps so well in the freezer, it is, according to Clay and Zach at The Bitten Word, the perfect way to preserve summer fruit without distorting its flavor. "Making freezer jam is delicious and incredibly easy. With traditional jam, you thicken the fruit by cooking it and boiling it down. In making freezer jam, however, you use pectin to thicken. And since you don't cook the fruit, the jam tastes intensely like the fresh fruit itself." Find the recipe at their blog, The Bitten Word....
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Photograph by roboppy After so many PBJs in a lifetime, we tend to make them without thinking. Peanut butter here, jelly there. But wait. There's a method to that madness. Instinctively, many people slop peanut butter on the bottom slice and jelly on top. Why? John Kessler, food columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has a theory: "Since taste buds are on the tongue, then the peanut butter goes on the underside so I can taste it first." Kessler goes back and forth, until eventually, he has no idea why he does what he does. But he's got one thing certain: Relative weights and densities are an issue. Heavier ingredients logically go at the bottom, and peanut butter is heavy,...
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Clockwise from top left: "Fresh Flower Jelly" by Tonkin Liu, and "Wobbly Bridge" by Foster + Partners, "Eden Project Jelly" by Grimshaw, and "Copper St Paul's Mould" by Bompas & Parr. The winners of this year's Architectural Jelly Design Competition have been revealed in all their colorful, wobbly, semi-translucent glory, with top prize awarded to "Fresh Flower Jelly" by Tonkin Liu. An auction raising money for architectural aid charity will allow those interested to buy photographs of the top entries and the actual molds themselves. Article 25. [via notcot]...
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As part of this summer's London Festival of Architecture, the British jelly retailers behind Bompas & Parr will be holding a contest purely devoted to the best gelatinous architectural moulds. It all started during the 1990s when jelly consumption was down in the UK and two friends—one an architect—decided to make delicious wobbly spreads from organic fruit and bring back the jelly glory. Entires for this year's contest are due May 23 and should include a detailed, scaled design that takes into account the collapse potential of too-tall or too-thin models. They warn: "there is fine line between outstanding 'wobble factor' and disaster." Check full contest rules at Bompas & Parr's website....
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Okay, so my friends have to start having babies right NOW, so I can get them this adorable bib with jars of peanut butter and grape jelly in love with each other. $8 from Etsy seller hannabear, printed by CafePress. (It's so super cute I almost wish it came in adult sizes! Hey, stop looking at me like that—eating lobster is messy!)...
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Commenting on the PBJ Special Report, Serious Eater Young mentioned that his friends in the band Chaibaba had recorded a song called "PB & J." We checked it out, and it was inspirational. So, in honor of National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, Serious Eats has included Chaibaba's song in a special PBJ iMix on iTunes. After the jump ......
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Proclaim your love of PB&J to one and all, or at least all of the people who get to see your fridge, by putting this die-cut photographic Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Magnet on it. $2.99 from fridgedoor.com, and no one will ever again doubt where your sandwich allegiance lies....
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