The way the big boys do it.

Frequent commentator and question-asker Sally C. from Tip of the Iceberg wants to know, given what I wrote about large batches of jam:

How can Smuckers make tons of the stuff? Or maybe I don’t want to know…. LOL.

The answer is that big manufacturers make jam in large quantities by cooking their products in very large — and very expensive — vacuum vats that allow them to evaporate water out of their mixtures at much lower temperatures — as low as 100 degrees Fahrenheit (as compared to the berry-crushing 217-220 degree range than home cooks have to work at).

Check out Sally’s site for an inspired cookie-based masthead, plus a great article on how the citizens of an Iowa town chipped in personally to save their own beleaguered school system.