h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Making Your Own High-Fruit Jam - A87760524
Author: Malabarista - now authorised to poke people - U1528154

I feel like I should add Yarreau to the researcher list - after all, she taught me how to make jam!

I love making jam it is so satisfying.

I shall read this properly later tonight, but just wanted to say congratulations for meeting the Challenge deadline!

Is it that obvious that this was a rush job?

I noticed you said special jam-making sugar isn't available in the UK - it actually is - eg. http://www.silverspoon.co.uk/home/products/sugar-and-syrups-for-cooking/jam-sugar (there are other brands too).

Thanks, I should probably mention it. I've seen it in the shops, but that one's still only formulated for 1:1.

An informative article. I've not made jam, although many members of my family have regularly year after year, and must admit that I didn't quite follow the pectin bit. You mention freezing apple and carrot peels, but then what do you with them? Put the frozen peelings along with lemon juice in the jam? How do you get the pectin out?

I'm also not sure about the sentence 'a country with a more highly developed jam-making culture' – that seems a little judgemental. Your argument seems to be that in Europe, especially the UK, the traditional 1:1 fruit to sugar ratio dominates. That may be down to a number of factors including personal taste, the preservation of a family recipe, availability of ingredients and cost etc. Dismissing someone's beloved great-grandmother's special jam recipe that they grew up on since childhood as 'less developed' could be a bit hurtful.

Oh, and you seem to have a stray P at the end.

Some related articles you could consider linking to include:
A649235 Cream Teas
A378236 Tasty Jam Sponge
A823286 Cooking with Carrots - Victorian Style

<BB<

Yes it is a good and informative article...but I also don't quite understand the references to UK jam making culture. It all depends where you come from and your family history. I grew up in the garden of England as its called, Kent. It was, and still is to a degree a big fruit producing area. My mother and her mother, a country woman, were great jam makers..and it was always much fruitier than any shop thing. We rarely had shop jam. I didn't get the interest in doing it, so I don't know what they did...but I hate very sugary jam to this day.

Fair enough, I'll change "culture" to "technology". But just because a recipe is traditional doesn't make it good.

Brillient I always seemed to recall jam makeing was a total faff... but this doesn't sound nearly as complicated as I recall from the times when I used to make damson jam with my Father in the way--back-when Oh, and I particularly like footnote 6.
My keilder (sp), jars may have a function to serve this year when I get the glut of fruit from friends trying to be coined off on me

Hi Mala, nice tasty article. Well done.
Just a couple of minor things:-

"Whatever you've got to hand will work, whether fresh-picked..."

*Whatever fruit you've got to hand will work, whether fresh-picked...*

--------------------------------------------

You appear to have a stray p> at the bottom of the article.

Other than that a great piece.

a really informative Entry

I think maybe you could give a few suggestions for fruit combinations that you like yourself?

I have never got the hang of making jam, (I mess it up every time) but this seems fairly straightforward. I won't be trying it, though, because we never eat jam.

As Bluebottle says, you need to explain how to get the pectin out of the saved apple peel. Do you put it in a muslin bag and hang it in the pot like a bouquet garni while it's cooking? Do you boil it up in a separate saucepan and add the liquid? Do you chop it up very fine and add it to the jam?

Just a couple of suggestions, as I adore making jam, and have all sorts of proper jam making equipment - not that you need such stuff for a first attempt.

Yes, you can certainly obtain jam sugar in larger supermarkets in the UK - but I guess this might vary by region.


I never bother with this special sugar, due to the expense compared to plain granulated - and have found that it is terribly easy to extract enough pectin for your purposes from apples. From memory, as my jam making bible is in the UK - the easiest way to get the pectin out is to use a cooking apple, peeled and chopped, and as many saved cores and peel from other apples that have been used to make pies or apple sauce etc ( save these in the freezer, it doesn't matter if they have gone a bit brown ). The pips are supposed to have the highest concentration of pectin, which is why fruit like bramble sets easier than fruit like strawberry. The juice of a freshly squeezed lemon will also sometimes help. Stick the lemon pips in the bag with the apple cores.

Under ripe fruit has a higher pectin content than over ripe.

Do as someone suggested earlier and put the cores into a muslin parcel, tied to the saucepan handle and cook this along with the rest of the fruit.

I've made lots of jelly ( which is usually made by cooking the fruit and then gently straining the liquor off from the pulp by placing it into a 'jelly bag' and letting it drip slowly, without squeezing, else it goes cloudy ) and this is the name for a clear jam in the UK. Redcurrant jelly is probably the most common of these jellies for instance. I am not certain it would work with fruit juice? I'd be interested to hear from anybody that has tried this.

Choose a large saucepan, if you've not got a preserving pan, but ensure that it is the heaviest bottomed one you have, if you have a choice. This really does help prevent it burning at the bottom.

If it is very firm fruit, such as hard damsons or such like, I often cook the fruit for a while in the least amount of water possible, so as to soften the skins, and also release the pectin nicely from the fruit before adding the sugar for the final boil.

Be careful when nearing the setting point, I have spoiled much more jam by cooking it for ten minutes too long, than having jam that was too runny, at least with runny jam you can cook it a little longer. Evaporation also makes the jam thicken. If you cook it too long it comes out like a sort of fruit toffee and you can't spread it on your toast.

I should stress the need to avoid scalding yourself when making jam - as the temperature at which it boils is higher than normal boiling water for instance.

I like it! Lovely entry Mala, and a good time to send this in, as summer approaches and people can start to harvest and gather.

'just because a recipe is traditional doesn't make it good' - true - You've not been sampling my Mum's jam, have you?

I'm glad that you're amenable to rephrasing that line. It is a minor niggle, I confess. If you say that high-fruit jam is healthier, fruitier etcv, fair enough. But saying the UK, a country where its most popular puddings are jam tarts, jam roly-poly, Victoria sponge cakes (with jam) and of course jam , whose children are raised on jam sandwiches and whose national institution, the Women's Institute, is nicknamed 'Jam & Jerusalem' does not have 'a highly developed jam-making culture' seems a little odd.

But I know the point you are making, and I agree that it is an important point to make. My personal opinion (which you can disregard) is that the point is at present confusing and perhaps needs to be made a little clearer.

<BB<

That sentence with all the jam in, Bluebottle, puts one in mind of a certain "spam" sketch.

We have:
Jam tart and jam
Jam roly poly with jam
Jam, Jam, Bakewell Tart and Jam
Jam, jam, jam, jam, jam, jam and jam

(Okay, I'll leave this conversation now to those better at cooking than me)

<BB<

I see this has got a lot of good suggestions already. When I make jam, I sterilize the glasses and lids first by putting them bottom up in a pot with boiling water for five minutes. It probably is sufficient of they've been cleaned in a dishwasher, though.

Be sure to protect your hands while turning the full glasses - they'll be so hot you'll scald your hands if you try to turn them unprotected.

>>I won't be trying it, though, because we never eat jam.<<

I know that. My husband picked lots of bramble berries last year and insisted I made jam of them. I didn't have any convenient glasses so had to fill them in yoghurt glasses which take 500g each - which is a much too large glass, especially for a family that doesn't eat jam.
It is best to have lots of small glasses, because you should eat the jam soon once you've opened the glass.
Nearly a year on and we still have one unopened glass - and I seem to recall I threw away 2/3 of the other one.

Maybe I can use it for cake of muffins or something, as nobody is going to eat that much.

in recycled jars!

I'm a toast-and-jam-for-breakfast kind of guy, and I like variety. So, there are usually at least six flavours of jam in my fridge at any one time - mostly Tiptree and Bonne Maman (both of which are made with more than 50% sugar.

I've made my own jams several times, and I have the scars to prove it, although I've attempted a low-sugar blend only once.

Some points:

1. I wonder how much goodness is left after the fruit has been boiled. The healthy option would be to forget about making jam and to eat the fruit raw.

2. Surely, one should start by thoroughly washing the fruit and discarding anything damaged.

3. Agreed! But once opened, even when kept in a fridge, the jam will spoil within two to three weeks. That's the price one pays for reducing the amount (and therefore the preservative effect) of the sugar. This happened to my low-sugar jam. Also, on a recent visit to Lidl's (don't laugh) Gourmet Section, I bought some low-sugar blackcurrent jam. It was nowhere near as good as Tiptree, so I put it into the fridge. Less than three weeks later, it had already started to go mouldy.

Everything written within << is missing in the new skin, but visible in Alabaster. Sorry.

>>I wonder how much goodness is left after the fruit has been boiled. The healthy option would be to forget about making jam and to eat the fruit raw.<<

I think it is the use of so much less sugar which makes it healthier.

Oh, and for the version with just 1/3sugar going mouldy sooner: that's why I think it is so important to sterilize the glasses and lids beforehand.