Mise en place for Rhubarb Jam

Tis the season for rhubarb, and I have a friend with a healthy plant, so am making rhubarb jam. This also gives me a chance to practice my execrable (according to the French chef at school (note: must also be said with a French accent)) knife skills. I am following a recipe from a book recommended by Chef James, Christine Ferber's "Mes Confitures". There are some delicious-sounding and unusual recipes in the book ("Plum and Apple with Anise and Vanilla" for example) and the book is arranged by seasons, to feature the freshest and ripest fruit.

She has ten recipes featuring rhubarb, and I'm starting with the simplest one: rhubarb, sugar and fresh lemon juice. The recipe calls for 1 kg net (prepared) rhubarb, 800 gm sugar (so 80% of the weight of the fruit) and juice of one lemon. My first step was to wash, trim, dice and weigh the rhubarb. My yield was 465 grams.



The next step was to calculate how much sugar I'd need, and to weigh the sugar. 80% of 465 is 372 grams. I'm making a little less than half the original recipe, so I squeezed half a lemon. Here is my mise en place:



Finally, I mixed this all together, covered it and put it in the fridge. It needs to macerate overnight to draw out the rhubarb juices and let the lemon start to activate the gelling power of the pectin. Tomorrow I will cook and can it.