raspberry cuvée

 i often remember a cab driver who said that milk turns to greenish black webbing in your stomach, slowly poisoning you. there was a treatment you could take to remove it that he recommended. he also told me a story about migrating to the US from czechia as a kid with his parents during the cold war. soon after they got settled, his Mom handed him a crescent moon shaped object. she demonstrated how to remove its yellow shell to find a softer, white interior, to break off a piece and to pop it in your mouth. he was apprehensive, but his mom insisted he try it.

“divine,” he said. and then again, “it…was…divine!” with such a vibrant timbre to his voice. 

banana. one of the reasons i like wine is because i like fruit so much. jam, like wine, offers access year-round to vibrant fruit flavors. sadly, most jam is too sweet. jenny sher, emily’s sister, makes jam that really tastes like fruit, and feels  more fresh than cooked. it is divine. 

This past weekend, jenny taught me how to make jam. i had tried before. at least it was just syrup and fruit, and another time it was too sweet. jenny taught me how to make my own jam, and make jam my own. 

making jam that’s not too sweet comes down to knowing your ratios, the ratio between the weight of the fruit and the weight of sugar. Different kinds of fruit require different amounts of sweetness for safe preservation and consistency. Jenny calculates her ratios by consulting various different recipes and cookbook authors who she trusts to not recommend something too sweet. Her jam style seems to be - keep it simple, as low in sugar as is safe, and feature the fruit, not other flavors. 

jenny's approach to jam was different from how I do mostly anything. first, she sat down with pencil and her journal. she consulted her notes from last summer, then read many different recipes, and at that point, decided on a course of action. she then weighed her fruit, calculated how much sugar she needed, weighed out the sugar, and then commenced the process. I probably would have started by lighting the stove. 

I definitely think Jenny's way of doing things is superior, in general, and extremely helpful for showing your friend how to do something. It made me think I might try doing things differently, with more planning and preparation. Em helped me find the thesis in my last blog post about herbs -- wine can show you something different about the world, something you wouldn't have thought of before. working on this jam making process with my friend helped me see a new way to approach a project. the last few days i've been trying to decide on just 2 or 3 things to accomplish, and considering the clear, thorough process of jenny making jam made this seem more possible. 

like jenny, the jam she makes is patient. you can’t rush jam. jenny teaches me patience, something i lack and seek a lesson in all time. 

raspberries jam 

this jam recipe turned out beautifully, even on the first time jenny or i had made this jam. we had the idea to combine the red and black raspberries when shopping at the farmer's market. the duo of the zippy red raspberries and the slightly more bass black raspberries makes it rich, juicy but bright. it reminds me a lot of the red wines made by Jordi Perez at Le Casot de Mailloles, unapologetically lush and deep wines from sun-drenched mediterranean fruit. 

this jam is seedy, and we like it that way. thanks so much to jenny for sharing this and for teaching me! 

*I recommend investing in a jam kit, most come with the tongs with the silicon tips, and a funnel, and a measuring stick/air bubble zapper plastic tool thingy. It keeps you safe from burns and keeps your jam safely packaged. 

By Ratio: 

100% Fruit 

     60% Red Raspberries 

     40% Black raspberries 

60% sugar 

(Plug in your fruit weight and work from there, for instance:

1 kilogram of fruit total (600 g red raspberries, and 400 g black raspberries) 

600 g of sugar )

3 - 4 oz lemon juice 

150 ml water 

Fill 2 high sided pots (like a stock pot) with water, and place metal jar rings around the base. This prevents the glass jars from touching the pot and bopping around. Bring the pots of water to a boil. Turn the heat down on one to keep it gently boiling. This will be used for sealing the jars. In the other pot, place your glass jars (no tops, just the empty jars) and return to a boil. This is to sanitize the jars. 

Place the fruit and water in a heavy bottomed, wide pot. The water is just so that the fruit doesn't burn right away, if you add too much at first you just have to wait longer for it to evaporate. It might seem like not enough water but the fruit will start releasing liquid soon after applying heat. Slowly bring water and fruit to a low boil, then add sugar and lemon juice. Continue cooking on medium-low until the jam is reduced, is no longer frothy but more glossy, and passes a set test. Seeing the jam go from whole fruit, to burst berries, to scummy and sudsy, to glossy and clear is wonderful to observe, and very much worth keeping an eye on, to make sure the process isn't happening too fast. Better to take it slow, you have more control that way. There's lots of information online about how to test jam for doneness, but I most prefer the method of chilling a plate in the freezer, pulling it out when cold, placing a dollop of jam on the plate, and moving it around to see how stiff it looks. I like to run my finger or a spoon through the jam on the plate and see if the line I made through it stays. Getting this part right so that the jam isn't too set but set enough is a skill. 

Remove the boiling hot glass jars from the first pot of water carefully, and fill with jam. Leave at least 1/4" of room at the top. Clean off the top of the glass so that the lids will form a clean seal. place lids on top, and loosely screw on ring tops. carefully lower jars of jam into the other pot of hot water. Set a timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the jars and set aside somewhere to cool. You will hear the seals popping. Check to make sure all the seals have popped - if any have not, try immersing them in the hot water bath again for 5 - 10 minutes. 

Gift, bake with and otherwise enjoy your jam! 

notes on hospitality at home

A couple weeks ago I posted an Instagram story asking if people would be interested in taking a short survey about hosting. The questions were modeled off of Sheila Heti’s sketch for what would shape the book Women In Clothes.

The Emily Post in me has always wanted to write about etiquette for hosts and guests so here is a much less serious version of that from a small but shared perspective. This is based on ten responses, the intention isn’t to be comprehensive but in reading them I felt my perspective both validated and shaken so hoping to share that feeling with you.

In asking people to define personal hosting rules I came across a lot of good advice and commonality. Two people really emphasized cleaning, two not trying something new, two people prefer to have the food basically finished while one respondent prefers to cook while guests are present. An influential chant that my friend and collaborator Kim heard from her father, “Fill the house with delicious smells, ply them with liquor, make them wait” while I also read “respect people’s time” in the interest of keeping a tight timeline. This is the first time I’ve been able to appreciate that the act of hosting mirrors one of my favorite things about wine: its ability to hold and further define two things that at first glance seem contradictory. The other night I was served dinner at 10:30 though the invitation was for 8, it was right on time. I would never do this.

My co-worker & friend Bridget set the tone for hosting rules everyone should follow, “making sure your guests are comfortable” which was set up to be unpacked by the respondents that followed. It is essential to: have enough food and places to sit, be aware of food allergies, make a good playlight, having the table set in advance (with candles please!), let people know what they can bring so it takes the strain off guessing (also let people bring things), and prioritize being with your guests. Cub, of course, recommends to pop a bottle right when people arrive and have the first drink together, it “feels like the special moment that the evening is now in motion.” A small ritual that makes everyone feel included right away, helping define that your attention is on your guests. Including this here is a way of editorializing this piece and suggesting that I think everyone should do this even if it is not alcohol.

While a lot of people continue to take inspiration from true hospo icons like Ina Garten and Martha Stewart, I think this nod to considering time with others as essential to hosting is in response to how consuming Stewart’s world can be. A starting off point for many, but people referenced fictional characters Jay Gatsby and Mrs. Dalloway, art world hosts Elsa Maxwell, Marie Helene de Rothschild, and the Bloomsbury Group, some cooks like Anna Stockwell and Yotam Ottolenghi. Unsurprisingly Moms, Dads, and friends are the strongest inspiration for most and I guess a reason you would host is to continue making this impact on the people in your life. Passing along what has imprinted on you like an intangible heirloom. 

That is not what anyone said in response to number eight, the question of “What is hosting about, for you?” I’ve been thinking about my friend Tim’s response a lot, to no conclusion, so wanted to share it here (it has been shortened): “I think a lot of writing about hosting is fundamentally bullshit because it does not acknowledge that there is a part that is about control and having things your way and being the center of something. Which is ok! It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.” Hoping always to be less bullshit.

We have a lot of party wine in the shop (magnums), fresh pet nats from Martin Worner and Alanna Lagamba you can have on the ready for when people walk in the door, and olive oil from Cantina Giardino which does a lot of heavy lifting so you can hang.

Thank you to Bridget Barry, Pat McMahon, Desmond Taylor, Cubby Dimling, Noël Morical, Tim Mazurek, Chuck Cruz, Joe Borgese, Mackenzie Beyer, Kim Upstill for contributing.

In the interest of brevity and readability I focused on responses to questions one, two, and four with some light inspiration from others. If you feel like taking it I’d still love to read it, email your answers to rainbowwinechi@gmail.com.

Host Survey

Based on Sheila Heti’s first questions for a dressing survey written in 2012

1. What are some hosting rules that you have for yourself that you wouldn’t recommend to other people necessarily, but which you follow?

2. What are some hosting rules that you think everyone should follow?

3. What are the preparation rituals you follow? Ex: are you always gathering recipes? Do you buy food for company even if you don’t know if you will have any? Do you burn incense before guests arrive?

4. What people from culture, past and present, do you admire or have you admired, in menu making and party throwing? Are there any people you took as models who you tried to emulate, even if only in details, not the whole?

5. Are you a fan of certain food writers, and if so who (does not have to be contemporary)?

6. How considered is your table setting? Is this a big part of it for you?

7. How do you conceive of your menu?

8. What is hosting about, for you? What are you trying to do and achieve by having people over?

9. What is the last meal you cooked for guests?