"Yappa" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:I don't like the taste of artificial pectins. They taste chemically to
me and I always think: What's the point of making homemade jam if it
tastes more chemically than store-bought? Also, I don't like really
sweet jams. So I use [censored] fruit, less sugar than recipes call for, and
cook the fruit longer. With fleshy fruits like peaches I bake the jam
like an apple butter. It always tastes great. Sometimes it's a bit
soupier than store-bought jam but not so soupy that it falls off the
bread. :-)
I think the way to get a good-textured jam with no artificial pectin is
to make sure the fruit has enough natural pectin and to make sure you
have enough acid. High pectin fruits are apples, crab apples, quinces,
red currants, gooseberries, grapes, plums and cranberries. Low pectin
fruits are strawberries, blueberries, peaches, apricots, cherries,
pears, raspberries, blackberries and pineapple. Underripe fruit has
more pectin than ripe fruit, so you can add a quarter or so underripe
fruit to your mix, or add some high-pectin fruit in with your low
pectin fruit. (Mixed fruit always seems to taste best anyway.) For
acid, add some lemon juice. Cooking longer supposedly kills pectin but
I don't have any problems with it. I never follow a recipe but I do
tend to taste and then monkey around with the ingredients while it's
cooking.
While I'm discrediting myself as a jam-maker, I'll also add that I
hardly ever bother with proper canning lids or parafin or any of that
stuff anymore. I sterilize my jars and fill them carefully, but then I
just keep them in the fridge till I eat them all.
You're exactly right about the pectin, and I do jam in the fridge the same
way . Often, all you need to do is use lemon juice for pectin. Last time I
made Pineapple Jam I think I used 2 T. lemon juice for a 28 oz. can of
fruit. It might work with cherries.
Maybe the Sur Jell needs the extra sugar to conceal its taste? Or this: An
older Food Science textbook says the standards for identity for jams and
jellies is "no less than 45 parts of fruit to 55 parts of sweetener by
weight". Or maybe they are playing it safe to cover their ass in case some
fool makes botulism. --I always go with equal parts on down according to the
tartness of the fruit. Add the lemon juice and cook it to the thermometer.
About those peaches you bake -- if you cook them down and get a recipe for
one of the thick fruit butters, you'll think you died and went to heaven.
Lefty
Life is for learning
The worst I ever had was wonderful
Quoted message said:
