? about making Strawberry jam (Ask your wife)

[PhilNH5]

I always seem to get good advice here. Now I have a question about making strawberry jam. I made some for the first time yesterday and then canned it in a boiling water bath. Today I had some for breakfast and it tastes great. unfortunately it did not set up. It is more like an ice cream topping than a jam.
I used a foodmill to grind the strawberries first. Then I added sugar it the correct amount I think. The recipe called for crushed berries. But mine were mostly liquid after going through the mill. So I may have had a great volume of liquid since there were no crushed berries in there to take up space. No pectin was used - just the berries and sugar.

So 2 questions. First will to little sugar prevent the jam from setting?
Second - Does jam "sheet" off a spoon like jelly or maple syrup when done? This stuff was pretty thick so I didn't think the sheet test would work. But making jam based on time didn't work either.

Any help or insights will be appreciated. Thanks. Phil

 

[Dozernut]

Mrs. Dozernut said she always uses pectin on her jams and jellies (ie. "Jel Ease") so they will set up. She said you probably should have just crushed the berries instead of using a food processer. A potato masher works particularly well. What you made would go very well on some home made ice cream /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif. Maybe you need some help in disposing of that "ruined jam, I have an ice cream freezer!/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Phil,

I ask my wife and she said "sounds good, all natural"

<font color=blue>I had some for breakfast and it tastes great. </font color=blue>

Guess I don't see a problem.
Al

 

[chim]

After the experience we had about 24 years back, I swore we'd never make strawberry jam again. So far so good. An older woman my wife worked with at the time provided the recipe, and instructions. One of her cautions was that if we failed to stir the boiling/cooking mixture constantly for the prescribed time, the world would certainly come to an end. There was a certain size pot she instruced us to use, but the mixture would clearly fit into a smaller pot, so we went with the smaller one. This was our first mistake. It seems like the mixture expands about 2X when boiling. Since we ignored the pot size advice, and now saw the error in our ways, I wasn't going to quit stirring regardless of what happened. When the mixture approached mass sufficient to boil over, I cautioned Wifey that the sugary mix would likely light off when it went down on the stove burner. It did. Next I said the smoke detector would sound. It did. Next thing to happen was the baby woke up and went bezerk from all the commotion. I kept stirring, holding my arm as high as possible and reaching down to avoid losing the hair on my arm. Kept stirring until the timer went. We then made one mell of a hess trying to get all that sticky stuff into the jars. The final blow came when Wifey tried to get the last of the jam scraped out of the pot, and the jam between the hotpad and pan caused her to lose her grip, and the pan fell wrong-side-up on the kitchen floor. This got most of the remaining jam out of the pot, but not into a jar. Found sticky spots in the kitchen for a long time. Ever since then, we've been getting our jam from the supermarket.

 

[ByuBill]

PhilNH5
<font color=blue>You will need to purchase one special ingredient, fruit pectin. Pectin is the substance that causes jam to gel. Some kinds of fruits have enough natural pectin to form a gel; however, strawberries require added pectin. </font color=blue>

<font color=blue>Strawberry Jam</font color=blue>
4 pints strawberries (5 cups crushed)7 cups sugar1/2 teaspoon margarine1 (1/3/4 ounce) package fruit pectin

Wash strawberries and remove stems. Crush by hand or in food processor. Measure 5 cups of strawberries into an 8 quart pot. Add margarine and fruit pectin to strawberries; mix well. Bring mixture to a full, rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Quickly add sugar to strawberry mixture. Bring to a full, rolling boil and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat; skim off foam. Fill clean jars quickly to 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims. Cover with lids and screw bands tightly. Invert jars 5 minutes, then turn upright. Check seals after 1 hour or process in boiling water canner for 5 minutes. Yield 4 1/2 pints.


<font color=blue>No-Cook Strawberry Jam</font color=blue>

Use fully ripe strawberries at room temperature to help the sugar dissolve. Do not reduce the sugar or use sugar substitute in this recipe. This recipe yields 4 cups of jam. Use freezer containers or wide-mouth freezer jars to store the jam for up to one year in the freezer. Inexpensive freezer containers can be found in the grocery store next to freezer bags.


1 quart fresh fully ripe strawberries (which will yield 1 3/4 cups crushed strawberries)
4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 pouch Certo liquid pectin

Rinse strawberries in cold water and hull. Crush berries, one cup at a time using a flat casserole-type dish and a potato masher or use a food processor. If using a food processor, pulse to chop, do not puree or liquefy. Jam has bits of fruit.
Measure 1 3/4 cups crushed fruit and place in a large bowl.
Measure sugar into a separate bowl. Use a one-cup dry measuring cup and scrape extra sugar off the top of each cup to level exact measure. Stir sugar into crushed strawberries.
Set strawberry and sugar mixture aside for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to help dissolve the sugar.
Next empty contents of one pouch of liquid pectin into a small bowl. Using a fork, stir in lemon juice. Mix well.
Add pectin mixture to strawberry mixture. Stir constantly for 3 minutes. A few sugar crystals may remain.
Fill one to two cup freezer containers with strawberry mixture to within 1/2 inch of the top. Wipe off top edges of containers and cover with lids. Let containers stand at room temperature for 24 hours. The next day your jam is ready to eat. Label and date containers. Place in the freezer. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. After opening, store leftovers in the refrigerator.

I can just taste it now. /w3tcompact/icons/love.gif Enjoy....

 

[PhilNH5]

Folks,
Thanks for all the replies. My wife thought I was nuts to post a "cooking" question on TBN. I told her that someone would answer.
I was trying to do the jam w/o pectin. Just sugar alone. But the next batch I'll use the pectin. Picked some up today. At the hardware store no less. Who also is my Toro dealer. I love NH.

Thanks again for all the help.
Phil

 

[Old_Wanker]

Mrs Wanker says that you should try using fruit that is a little unripe because it has more natural pectin in it. You also should use less sugar and boil for longer (like over an hour). Try testing for gel point by putting a bit on a plate in the fridge and if it gels after a few minutes your done. In her book it doesnt taste as good as when you use ripe fruit and add your own pectin though.

If you have runny jam then you can firm it up by making freezer jam just by keeping it in the freezer. The refined way to deal with runny jams was always to keep a spoon just for dipping in the jam pot by the way.

 

[MDNick]

I'm with ByuBill on this one. I much prefer the no-cook variety. I think it has a better taste, it really tastes like fresh strawberry's. Very easy. But just like he says, follow that recipe exactly. I did once, but turns out I used old Pectin. I bought a large name brand jam/jelly mfg's pectin. It didn't work, which caused me to complain to my father (who works for the company). He said they hadn't made the stuff in 4 yrs, and pectin has a shelf life. Buy SureJell. It works great.

I have stored it more than 2 yrs in the freezer. It doesn't spoil and I don't notice any difference in taste. But then, I'm not very discriminating. But it sure beats boughten jam from the aforementioned company. Though my dad has 3 yrs to retirement, so keep buying jam with the gingham cap./w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif