Preserves queen, Pam Corbin, agreed to share her top tips for preserving jams, jellies and beyond.
Jam
There's nothing like a row of colourful summer jams to brighten cold winter days.
Now is the time to think ahead and get jamming.
To qualify as proper jam, the finished product should contain 60% sugar, including the sugars in the fruit.
Top tips:
- Use fresh, dry, slightly under-ripe fruit.
Strawberries and raspberries are best layered with the sugar and left for a couple of hours before cooking.
Plums, currants, gooseberries, cherries etc... need to be lightly poached before sugar is added.
- Pectin, naturally found in fruit is vital to make your jam set.
With low pectin fruits like strawberries, help them along by either mixing with pectin rich fruits like gooseberries or by using jam sugar (with added pectin and citric acid).
- Setting point is 104.5°C.
You can tell when your jam is reaching setting point as the fast, frothy rolling boil will reduce to a slower more relaxed boil.
The tiny air bubbles will disappear, the surface will look glossy and the mixture will feel thicker.
Undercook rather than overcook - runny jam can be cooked up again.
- To get rid of scum (which is just trapped air) at the end of cooking, stir in the same direction until reduced.
- When potting up, fill your jars to brimful when the jam is still over 85°C.
If using twist-on metal lids there's no need to use waxed discs.
More here:
Homemade raspberry jam
Marrow & ginger jam
Really fruity strawberry jam
Gooseberry jam
Summer berry jam:
1.8kg mixed summer berries
I used hulled strawberries - large ones halved
- raspberries,
- redcurrants,
- blackcurrants and
- a few early blackberries)
1½ kg jam sugar (the one with added pectin)
juice and pips 1 lemon
finger-tip size knob of butter (optional)
All About Strawberries - How To Cooking Tips - RecipeTips.com
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