First ever jam
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Posted: Jul/05/2008 11:37 PM PST
Well, I was worried I hadn't collected enough berries. I had enough for 3 batches of stawberry jam. IT WORKED. It tasted wonderful, it jelled and It came from my garden YIPPIE! Okay, I had to share here, I live in a house full of men. Sass |
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Posted: Jul/06/2008 2:08 AM PST
Nothing wrong with sharing with us! We're happy to hear of your success! I'm glad it turned out. Sometimes making jams and jellies can be tricky, so as they say, You done good! I know that you will savor every bite! |
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Posted: Jul/06/2008 12:18 PM PST
Thank you! |
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Posted: Jul/06/2008 7:02 PM PST
I recently purchased a canning kit and am going to try making some jam, jellies, and applesauce. The kit came with "Ball blue book of preserving". It seems like a great book and has lots of recipes, but I would love to try something different. Do you think that you could share your recipe? 
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Posted: Jul/06/2008 7:34 PM PST
The Ball Blue Book of Preserving is the "bible" of food preserving so you can't go wrong with that book. They have another book entitled "Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving" that has a lot more recipes. And for small batch recipes, if you are not planning on canning 100 jars at a time, is the "Small-Batch Preserving" book by Ellie Topp & Margaret Howard. There are some good recipes to be found on the internet, but you get the old with the new, so some recipes are from grandparent's time and are not "canned". They just fill and seal the jars, which is not considered safe these days with what we know now. Purchase some regular pectin and you will find good recipes inside the box. If you don't like the sugar required for regular jams and jellies, purchase the low or no sugar needed pectins. They also have nice recipes for jams & jellies in the box. I would also start with the "mixes" put out by Ball Canning and also Mrs Wages for doing Pickles and Salsa. Quite simple and very safe when you follow the instructions. |
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Posted: Jul/06/2008 9:45 PM PST
That's what I did. I followed the instructions on the ball fruit pectin insert. worked great. Sass |
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Posted: Jul/07/2008 5:30 AM PST
 My daughter and I bought a beautiful flat of strawberries from the berry farm down the road and made our very 1st batch of jam. But alas they turned out to be more like strawberry syrup. We got the recipe off the internet which called for pectin but it said you only had to bring it to a boil, add the rest of the sugar, bring back to a boil and boil for one minute exactly. Needless to say we won't use that recipe again. We figured it cost us $1.90 for each 1/2 pint jar of syrup (HA) because we had to pay $22 for the flat of beautiful fresh berries and the jars from Walmart. I guess we need to find a new recipe. We were being lazy and didn't want to cook the berries for 30 to 60 minutes. Well it was a learning experience for sure. So how does everyone elso do their strawberry jam?
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Posted: Jul/07/2008 7:51 AM PST
You may want to read this link for possible help: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_07/remake_soft_je lly.html There is an art and chemistry to making jams and jellies, but usually when direction and their ingredients are followed exactly there will be success. Unfortunately I don't know what recipe you followed, but there are some good tested ones on the flyer in the pectin box. You can compare recipes and perhaps figure out where you went wrong. |
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Posted: Jul/07/2008 6:16 PM PST
I made my first jam today. I followed the recipe according to my book, but didn't put in the full amount of sugar. After reading cannednerd's response to the previous post though..I'm not sure that was a good idea. I also didn't seperate alot of the foam that formed on top because it had chunks of fruit in it. I used the boiling water canning method and just put the jar in the refridgerator a few minutes ago. It had been resting for about 10 hrs. It seems to have set well, but I won't know until tomorrow at the earliest. I'll follow up with the results. |
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Posted: Jul/07/2008 8:58 PM PST
It will be interesting if it really sets up, considering you (wrongly) did not use all the sugar required by the recipe. Pectin requires sugar to set up the gel. Sugar also acts as a preservative. How much sugar did you leave out? If you do not like the amount of sugar used with regular pectin, then you should use the low sugar or no sugar needed pectins and then use the recipe proportions provided on the flyer in the pectin box. The recipes are not the same, but these pectins allow you to reduce the amount of sugar, use no sugar, or use artificial sweeteners like Splenda. |
