Ten steps to jam-making - from Delia Online:
" Don’t worry about any scum that rises to the surface while the jam is boiling – if you keep skimming it off, you’ll finish with no jam at all!
Instead, wait until you have a set, then remove the jam from the heat and stir in a small lump of butter, which will disperse the scum.
"Very soft-set jam can get away with being called a 'conserve'," said Kat, "but even a conserve needs to be able to hold its shape."
Hannah's advice: use jam sugar with added pectin.
If that seems to be a cop out, add lemon juice (about half a lemon per pound/ 500g of fruit) or some high-pectin fruit: gooseberries, redcurrants or cooking apple.
And stick to slightly underripe, or only just ripe, fruit: it's naturally higher in pectin than very ripe fruit.
Sugar is another area of confusion.
The finer the sugar the more impurities lurk, causing scum in jam. So, for the brightest jams and jewel-clear jellies, coarse-grained "preserving sugar" is best.
Granulated sugar will do, but the jam will need extra skimming.
Caster sugar is too fine, and makes murky jams.
"Jam sugar" is granulated sugar with extra pectin, great for less-than-confident jam makers.
'via Blog this'
" Don’t worry about any scum that rises to the surface while the jam is boiling – if you keep skimming it off, you’ll finish with no jam at all!
Instead, wait until you have a set, then remove the jam from the heat and stir in a small lump of butter, which will disperse the scum.
"Very soft-set jam can get away with being called a 'conserve'," said Kat, "but even a conserve needs to be able to hold its shape."
Hannah's advice: use jam sugar with added pectin.
If that seems to be a cop out, add lemon juice (about half a lemon per pound/ 500g of fruit) or some high-pectin fruit: gooseberries, redcurrants or cooking apple.
And stick to slightly underripe, or only just ripe, fruit: it's naturally higher in pectin than very ripe fruit.
Sugar is another area of confusion.
The finer the sugar the more impurities lurk, causing scum in jam. So, for the brightest jams and jewel-clear jellies, coarse-grained "preserving sugar" is best.
Granulated sugar will do, but the jam will need extra skimming.
Caster sugar is too fine, and makes murky jams.
"Jam sugar" is granulated sugar with extra pectin, great for less-than-confident jam makers.
'via Blog this'
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