Can you guess the top seller in my vintage tea room?... Cream tea! I know! Shocking! So, I get through a lot of jam, I make my own jam because as far as I'm concerned home made is always better.
Making jam in theory is pretty simple, equal quantity of fruit and sugar and boil away until set, right? Well I've been making jam every couple of months for nearly two years and it never comes out the same. Here is the basic recipe I use and below are a few hint and tips I've picked up through experience.
2kg sugar
1 bottle pectin
1 lemon
1. Removed the tops of the strawberries and chop in half
2. Put in a jam pan and heat for 5 mins
3. Add the pectin and lemon juice for another 10 mins
4. Put a saucer in the freezer, after a few mins dribble some jam on it and pop back in the freezer for 5 mins, if the jam wrinkles it's ready. If not add the juice of another lemon and heat for another 5-10 mins, repeat adding half a lemon each time until the jam wrinkles when you push your finger through it on the saucer.
5. Thoroughly wash all the jars in hot soapy water and rinse, place on a baking tray and put in the oven for 30mins on 50 C to sterilise.
6. Scrape off any foam that may have settled to the top of the jam and carefully pour into the sterilised jars, and place wax discs over the top
7. Leave over night to cool. When cool tightly screw on the jar lids and decorate with fabric tops and pretty labels to your hearts desire
Once the jam is in the jars leave it a few mins then give it a quick stir I find the strawberries float to the top.
Jam can set more a week or two later, what starts out seeming like the perfect consistency can be really set later on. Simply add a bit of boiling water and give it a good stir in the jar, this will loosen it up a bit.
If your jam doesn't set at all but you've jarred it up, don't worry you won't need to throw it out but you will need to put it all back into the pan and reheat and add more lemon juice or pectin and sterilise jars again (You will loose a jar or so of jam).
If foam forms on the top, scrape as much of it off as you can.
Don't leave your jam unattended, that saying about a watched pot never boils, completely applies in this situation, as soon as you take your eyes off it boils over, and trust me, it's a pain to clean up!
When filling the jars, don't fill them right to the top straight away as you might find near the end you are left with jam that doesn't have any fruit in in, more like jelly, top up the jars with this and stir, this ensures a more even distribution of fruit.
Don't despair! I have jarred up unset jam, over set jam, burnt two massive pans of jam, boiled the jam over, you name it I've done it, but usually (bar the time I burnt it) I've managed to rectify it in some way and I'm still learning now.
Experiment with different fruit and flavours, try different types with your mates then you can swap jars so you don't end up with ten jars of one type but lots of different types.
Have fun and remember... Watch that pot!
No comments:
Post a Comment