The other day, a friend asked me, "Why do you have so many cookbooks? Aren't all recipes on the internet?" All recipes? On the internets?! I snorted so hard, beer flew out my nose. Firstly, I don't have that many cookbooks--3 or 4 feet of bookshelf is all. Secondly, while the internet can certainly provide many fine recipes, many internet recipes are untrustworthy. Given the internet's lack of critical evaluation, plus the questionable tastebuds of the people in particular (witness Zagat's), I give most internet recipes a long, hard look before using them.
This lack of recipe vetting is particularly troublesome when the internet is the only source for a particular recipe. Recently, Auntie Winnie scored a large amount of feijoas and gave us a generous bag. Feijoas are hard to come by and we couldn't possibly eat it all before it went bad, so we decided to make feijoa jam. I don't have any feijoa jam recipes lying around, so hello internet!
A search for feijoa jam recipes yielded surprising results: there are plenty of websites with recipes, but they all cite the same recipe! Here's the recipe in its entirety:
Feijoa Jam WARNING Do not use this recipe unless you plan to waste two pounds of feijoas 2 lbs feijoas, peeled and sliced 1/2 cup water 1 lemon, juice and zest of 4 cups warmed white sugar 1. Place feijoas, water, lemon juice and zest in a large stainless steel pot and bring to a boil over medium heat, and cook until fruit is soft, around 15 minutes. 2. Add warmed sugar and stir until it dissolves. 3. Bring jam to a rapid boil and boil without stirring until the mixture reaches the setting point, around 20 minutes. 4. Pour jam into hot sterilized jars, seal and process.
This is a crappy recipe. There's no pectin, which means you're relying on fickle Mother Nature. The recipe is almost never accompanied by additional text--though one site, recipezaar, had this comment
I found this recipe on the net per a recipe request. There was no processing time attached. I would process 10 minutes.
which tells me that s/he never actually tried to make it.
In the end, we used the recipe because there weren't any alternatives. The recipe doesn't work--after twenty minutes of boiling, you are left with a chunky, semi-caramelized goop which eventually solidifies into a very firm jam (lack of pectin fears were unfounded). The jam is completely devoid of that enticing, sweet-tart scent of fresh feijoa, without which the feijoa is merely an underripe kiwi. You could boil an old sneaker in sugar and end up with the same thing.
Post script:
Like a chain letter or urban legend, the feijoa jam recipe is a fine example of an internet meme:
- it looks like it just might work, thus attracting your attention
- it replicates itself, as evidenced by the its multiple appearance on the internet
it adapts as necessary to ensure its survival: there are metric versions of this recipe