Snow is on the ground outside but in the kitchen I am making Strawberry Jam! I guess it's Strawberry season in California, because at the market near us, they have quarts of berries for 99 cents! Of course I just had to buy some, and headed home intent on making Jam. I had recently bought some natural pectin (from a food co-op we are a part of), that can set jam with minimal honey or sugar, or jam that is sweetened with fruit juice concentrate. The pectin is extracted from citrus peel, and its jelling power is activated by calcium, (they give you a little packet of powdered calcium) not by huge amounts of sugar. The first batch I made didn't quite jell as much as I would have liked, but it was O.K. I had used White Grape concentrate to sweeten it, and I think it gave it a slightly different taste. For the next batch, I used Apple concentrate, and increased the pectin. It jelled like a charm, and was much tastier!
I have one little problem though, and I would be appreciative if anyone who has experience with jam making could help me out. After the hot water bath, which is for 5 min., all the strawberry chunks are at the top of the jar, and the liquid/juice is at the bottom. Is there any way I can keep it from doing that? I just stir it up after it's opened, but it does look kind of strange.
For those of you who would like to know, the pectin that I use is Pomona's Universal Pectin. Happy jamming!
~ Faith
1 comment:
Hello Faith,
My cookbook says the following:
Fruit floating in jam may be caused by: underripe fruit, insufficient crushing of fruit, undercooking, pouring into container too soon after removing from heat.
I have that problem too, but only sometimes. It does look strange, but it still tastes good!
Kristyn Hall
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