Abundance of Flavors

Submitted by Mrs. Millers on Fri, 01/04/2019 - 2:49pm

One of the questions we get asked most often here at Mrs. Miller's Homemade Jams is, "where do you come up with the recipes".  This is a great question, and because of the variety of flavors we cook up here, the answer is not always the same. 

We started out with a core of best sellers, and for many of these the simple answer to "where do the recipes come from" is: the recipes have been passed down from generations of grandparents and relatives.  This is usually the case with our traditional flavors- recipes with berries that were common on farms & gardens and canned for generations before us.  But with many of our newer flavors that have been added since, we have had to research, try, and retry with sample batches until we feel that we have developed the perfect recipe producing the best possible version of that jam.  In our earlier years, this research consisted of Mr. & Mrs. Miller digging through recipe book after recipe book, until they had a recipe they were satisfied with.  In later years, the internet has been a valuable resource in gaining information from other home canners.  Fortunately, the building blocks of a good recipe are generally similar.  Start with high quality fruits grown by farmers who have a long history of producing great fruits.  Add gmo free cane sugar, pectin, and some other basic ingredients and you end up with a good jam.  Of course, there are other spices and tasty ingredients that get added, and from that point it is a matter of working with the recipe until we feel that we have the perfect levels of tastes in the fruit, sweetness, & consistency.  

We have been making and selling our homemade jams for over 30 years, and currently make over 70 different varieties of jams, jellies, preserves & butters.  In those 30 years, we have received hundreds of suggestions on different flavors folks would like to see us make.  It can be a difficult to determine when it is time to add a new flavor. Sometimes we receive such a multitude of requests for a specific new flavor that we can't resist giving it a try, and sometimes we come across a taste of a new flavor out there that is so inviting that we feel like we need to give it a try...with the hope of tweaking it and making it available to fans of Mrs Miller's as well.  The farmers markets, bulk food stores, and grocery stores that sell our products are great resources for us as they listen to their customers and the flavors they are craving. 

If there is an off season in jam making, the winter is it.  And this gives us an opportunity to begin experimenting with new flavors, and this year is no different.  We are busy working with recipes in our small kettles, working to achieve another homemade recipe that is so delicious that we can't keep from adding it to our lineup and offering it to our loyal customers.  We are close to adding several new flavors and we can't wait to make them available....hopefully in time for the spring canning season!