Who makes jam or jelly? - Page 2

@ Worldcook - an idea for making pear preserves that have some body.  Instead of processing your pears like an applesauce, try this.  Peel and core pears.  On your food processor, insert a "fine grate" disc.  Send your pears down the feed tube and let the processor create a fine shred pear.  Toss the shredded pears in a nonreactive pot with a 1/4 cup lemon juice for every 8 cups pears.  The lemon not only helps the pH value, but heigthens the pear flavor.  Sweeten as you will. 

Just an idea.  It can help give the preserve a bit more body while keeping the sugar low.  Also, adding a little cinnamon can fool the palate into believing it is tasting something quite sweet.  I think pears and cinnamon are divine, but then again I put cinnamon in my chili, my spag sauce, my hot chocolate - I'd put it in a pot roast if I remembered to!! lol!

Best of luck!

Do you ever make no sweetener fruit spread? I hear you need a special kind of pectin. Is that true? I would like to make a large batch and can it but I would like it to be viscous enough to spread.

David from Rowland Heights CA

I too have been preserving, making jams and only a few jellies for years. Raspberry is a summer staple and the easiest it almost makes itself. Others are more work, I make crabapple pomegrante jelly;  peach almond jam; clementine marmalade and some vegetable preserves as well.  Each year I seem to make less though as I age.

Just read your thread about jellies and jams.  Making jams and bottling fruit and vegetables are BIG where I live.   They also turn their jam pots upside down too.  I have bottled our black and red cherries, plums and peaches.  They lasted really well.  We use a steralisatuer in the garden and this year we are going to try using Eau - de Vie instead of water. 

I have some home grown recurrants in my freezer which I plan to make some redcurrant jelly ( love it with roasted lamb - its a Brit thing)  Do I need to top and tail them before cooking them?

Best regards

Normandie

I always top n tail my redcurrants - maybe because that's the way my Mum and Granny started the process.

I make redcurrant jellies and sauce to go with venison..    great with collops!

No, you are not alone.  I still put up a lot of fruit, jelly, jams and veges.  But my best is hot jalapeno jelly.  Teach this stuff to your kids. MommaT

This old thread has resurfaced.  I found some little green/purple plums today and they were very underripe, hard and sour.  The best for jam.  My jars are popping even as i write. 

I discovered a very quick way to get the seeds out. 

I make sure my chef knife is very sharp.  On a cutting board i lay the plum, then roll it under the blade crosswise (like around the belly, so the knife rolls over the stone.  Then lenghthwise in one direction, then crossing at top and bottom, lenghthwise the other direction.  then pick up the plum and twist.  The seed comes out easily and it's already cut up!  Much faster than trying to mash them in the jam pot when they;re cooking to get the seeds to detach and come to the surface. 

Someone was asking about low sugar jam and using grapejuice as sweetener, and the purpose was for a diabetic child.  Diabetics cannot eat sugar, period, or a very limited quantity.  Slow carbohydrates are best.  Honey, grape sugar, fructose, glucose sucrose, they;re all the same and all must be seriously limited.  beware. 

I have taken a course at Le Cordon Bleu in the Madrid Capital at their new Culinary Institute and had a bit of help, however, the one on the left is Fresh Fig Marmalade and the one on the right is assorted orange varieties including Blood Oranges.

Interesting post.

Have lovely summer.

Margaux.