Perfectly Practical #174 - What to Do with Leftover Jam, Etc.

Canning season for most of us is finished now.

If you are anything like me you had a little leftover brine or syrup from the various pickles and preserves you've made.

OR...

If you aren't like me at all and don't subject your family to having every surface in your home covered in canning paraphernalia and the air filled with the pungent smell of vinegar, then you still may have those little tiny bits of leftover jams or jellies lurking in your fridge.

Here are some ideas that we use for the jar scrapings:

Syrup (from preserves or otherwise)

• Use as a glaze for meat
• In a salad dressing
• Over a fruit salad
• Pour on a poke cake
• Use as a sweetener in tea or oatmeal

Jam/Jelly

• Melt down to make a sauce/syrup (add fruit to give it substance)
• Mix all the jar scrapings together to have a mixed fruit jam
• Spread thinly in between a layer of pound cake
• Make yogurt parfaits and freeze them for later

Fruit Butters

• Use in place of part of the oil in a cake recipe
• Add to a tagine
• Mix in a protein shake
• Put in with bread or rice pudding for a little extra flavor

Pickle Juice

• Use it in place of vinegar in recipes
• Add more vegetables to the juice and make refrigerator pickles with the brine
• Freeze it to make picklecicles
• If naturally fermented pickes (like sauerkraut) the juice is very good for you and can be added to veggie juice
• Put it in a mixed drink to make it "dirty" as in a Dirty Martini

This Works for Me.