DAY 70

Today was jelly day, we made Raspberry Fruit Jellies, Raspberry Jelly, Strawberry Jelly, and Pineapple - Star Anise Jelly. We took out three pans and put each mixture into each one and then onto the stove. With both the Strawberry and Raspberry jams we took the fruit, the special jellifing sugar, lemon, and with the Strawberry one also adding some vanilla bean, cooked them on the stove till they reached the disierd temperature. With the Pineapple - Star Anise jelly, the only added thing was we had to cook the raisins in another pan before adding to the mixture. This was really cool, beacuse right before we took it off the stove, and now this was of course on purpose, set fire to them. So for a couple of seconds there was a flame inside the saucepan (in the pic you can see it but you might have to click on the pic, so that it will inlarge). One thing that we had to do was wrap our stirring hand in a towel. This was because while the mistures were on the stove we couldn't stop stirring, and at that hot temperature of heat and steam, well you get the point. At this point when the fruit mixtures have now turned and are Jelly we pour them into jars, close the lid, turn them over, and put them into the fridge.The reason why we have to turn them over is so that when the jellies are coolin, in the closed jar, that there is no air bubble between the jelly and the lid, otherwise it becomes a luxury spa for micronisms. Before starting our last reciepe we had our tea and coffee break. After the break we made our last thing for today, Raspberry Fruit Jellies. We put the fruit pulp, sugar, pectin, and glusouse and put it on the stove, then whisking it till the sugar and pectin dissolve and is boiling. Then we had to keep it ata boil till it reached 110°c on the cany thermometor. When it reaches this point you have to take it off the flame and then quikly (and I mean quickly) the citric acid. The reason why I'm stressing on the quickly part is that the the first time we made this we had whisked it in, but then it started to congeal in the bowl, then, because of a question, we found out that if we added the citric acid to early in the process, lets say like when were still cooking it, it won't congeal at all and the mixture will stay liquid no matter how long it's in the fridge. Anyways, we then poured it into the mold (oh, if your wondering about the picture, the sugar around the mold is to make sure that everything stays in, and if not the sugar would catch it) and then let it sit for a bit. While it was sitting there congealing, we cleaned up the rest of the kitchen so when it was time to go, we wouldn't have to stay behind and finish cleaning. The last thing we did was cut the big mass into little sqaures, roll them around in the sugar and them put them in their pretty little Ritz plastic bags. Instead of going home I had to stay afterwards for my exam, UGH!!! I had an hour after class to clean up my uniform, go to the bathroom, and do a little last minute studying (well I knew all the reciepes, for me it was more just repeating them in my head than actual last minute studying). So before entering the kitchen I had to pick from one of the envelopes and then took out the paper inside to see which reciepe I had gotten. Thankfully we were allowed to write whatever we wanted on the paper, well that's because I had already given in my notes. So, before forgetting, I wrote down the reciepe and someother things like what order I was going to do everything in, including washing up. I had picked the Milk Chocolate Tart, thankg-d. I mean I knew al the recieps, just of the 5 this one was the most simple, but still not being plain. The only realy scary thing about the exam was that I was the only person. The reason this was scary was because I was the only one taking the exam this week so it was dead quite. The wasn't even any noise outside the kitchen since it was like 8 at night and most people had gone home and the other kitchen for the school had even been closed up for the day as well. Well after the exam, and about 100lbs had been lifted from my shoulders, I went home.


Get Some Bread and a knife....