About the Recipe
Sterilising your Equipment
Preheat the oven to 150*c gas mark 2
Thoroughly wash the jars, lids and funnel in hot soapy water.
Rinse away any bubbles but do not dry the jars, lids and funnel.
Place the jars (upside down) and the lids and funnel onto a baking tray and place in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
Top Tips and Fun Facts
If using fresh fruit, use slightly under or just ripe fruit as this will have a higher amount of natural pectin.
Always wash and thoroughly dry the fruit, checking for any signs of deterioration. Discard any fruit that look squishy or have soft patches, these may cause the whole batch to fail.
Frozen berries are great for making jams but cooking times can be unpredictable due to differing levels of water.
If you prefer to use a thermometer, the setting temperature for jam is 104.5o but we will look at alternatives for testing jam if you do not have a thermometer.
You can reduce the amount of sugar in jams by using sugar with pectin.
All recipes for jams and curds can be scaled up but I like to start with small batches when trying new recipes.
Here comes the science! Fresh pineapple, papaya and kiwi contain enzymes that break down protein molecules this stops molecules tangling together…. In layperson’s terms, they will stop your jam from setting.
Jelly, jam, preserve or conserve?
Jelly’s are made from the juice of fruit only and are usually clear. Crab apple jelly is a good example.
Commercially, Jam is legally required to be 60% sugar (including fruit sugars) with at least 35% fruit with some exceptions for fruits like blackcurrants and juniper that are very low in natural pectin. However, a ratio of 50/50 with the additional 10% of sugar coming from the natural sugars in the fruit is probably the most common.
Preserves contain whole fruit, suspended in a jelly and have no legal requirements for ratios of sugar to fruit, so usually contain less sugar and more fruit. A good example is marmalade.
Conserves are usually a jam or preserve that contains more than one kind of fruit, dried fruits, nuts raisins and spices are commonly added too.
Wax discs are only required when using traditional methods of jarring, e.g. no lid, just a cloth covering.
I still have jams that do not set from time to time. Don’t worry if this happens they make a lovely drizzle for ice- cream or served as a coulis. However, as they have not set I would
Store them in the fridge and aim to use them within a few week.
I also open jars of jams that pop when opened (so are sealed) but have visible mould
VERY occasionally. If it makes you feel better I have had this with commercial jams
Too. In this case the jam is not usable as the mould spores will be throughout the jam.
Chalk it up to experience and bounce back with a new batch.
Ingredients
300g Fresh Raspberries
3oog Caster Sugar
A good squeeze of Lemon juice (bottled is fine
Preparation
Before you start, put 2 teaspoons in the freezer.
1. Place roughly half of the raspberries in a saucepan with the lemon juice.
2. Over a low-moderate heat, mash the raspberries with a potato masher until the berries completely ‘collapse’.
3. Tip the remaining raspberries and the sugar into the pan and continue to heat gently, stirring occasionally until the sugar crystals are gone.
4. Once the sugar has melted, increase the temperature until the jam is boiling, boil for 3 minutes, then carefully stir.
5. Retrieve the spoon from the freezer and dip into the jam collecting a few drops of jam on the spoon, place to one side to cool.
6. Stir the jam occasionally to check that it is not ‘catching’ on the bottom of the pan (if it is remove from the heat and scrape the bottom of the pan to remove before returning to the heat).
7. Once cooled sufficiently, carefully check the jam on the spoon by running your finger through the jam
- If it immediately fills the channel your finger left, cook for a further 2 minutes and then check again.
- If it leaves a very slow to fill channel, it should be cooked in 5 minutes.
- If the channel holds and possibly wrinkles it is cooked.
9. Use a spoon to remove any scum on the top of the jam.
10. Optional. If scum really bothers you, you can add a teaspoon of butter to the hot jam and stirring through to dissolve any remaining scum.
11. Pour into warm sterilised jars and seal.
Store in a cool, dry place for up to a year. The colour may fade but this will not affect the quality of the flavour. Once opened store in the fridge.