Is it worth the outlay cost?

marmiterulesok

Angel_Jenny wrote: »

The pan I have seen is a beautiful one from Lakeland - suitable for jam or cheese making!

It is £43 though.

Do you need a big pot to boil your filled jars in to seal them?

Space is another issue - too many hobbies!!

I use my pressure cooker (without the lid) to make my jams.If you don't have a pressure cooker,do you have a large/deep heavy based pan?Better if it's deep I think-less risk of splashing.

I sterilise the jars by filling them with boiling water.I also sterilise the lids in boiling water and the lid will 'pop' to form a seal after a short time.That's if you're using old jam jars or bought jars for jams.You shouldn't need to boil the filled jars.Once they're filled I turn them upside down for a while.

I have bought fruit to make jams,but have been fortuanate to have been given quinces and loads of marrows,so jams galore.:)

I went a bit overboard on the jam making and have 68 jars of various jams in small/medium and large jars dating back two years at the most.So I eat quite a lot of jam.:o

I couldn't resist making rhubarb and clove jam this year,which I love.I'd also like to make a few jars of raspberry jam.

I also have 17 jars of HM chutney.

Angel_Jenny

marmiterulesok wrote: »

I use my pressure cooker (without the lid) to make my jams.If you don't have a pressure cooker,do you have a large/deep heavy based pan?Better if it's deep I think-less risk of splashing.

I sterilise the jars by filling them with boiling water.I also sterilise the lids in boiling water and the lid will 'pop' to form a seal after a short time.That's if you're using old jam jars or bought jars for jams.You shouldn't need to boil the filled jars.Once they're filled I turn them upside down for a while.

I have bought fruit to make jams,but have been fortuanate to have been given quinces and loads of marrows,so jams galore.:)

I went a bit overboard on the jam making and have 68 jars of various jams in small/medium and large jars dating back two years at the most.So I eat quite a lot of jam.:o

I couldn't resist making rhubarb and clove jam this year,which I love.I'd also like to make a few jars of raspberry jam.

I also have 17 jars of HM chutney.

My problem is that whatever hobby I start I need to get the equipment for it. I don't have any big pans at all! I don't fancy getting any jam related injuries!

68 jars of jam?! Jealous, inspired and a little scared all at once! How long does a jar keep for?

Rhubarb and clove - never heard of that combination. That must be a big part of the fun getting to play around with all those flavours!

That method sounds very straightforward! I tend to assume that all skills that I haven't got are really really complicated and beyond me.

Callie22

I've made soft cheese occasionally and you really don't need any fancy equipment - a pan, colander, sieve, some muslin - that's about it really. A thermometer is useful but not occasionally. You can make yogurt cheese really easily (google labneh recipes) and paneer is another one that's really easy.

If you fancy something more complicated then there are lots of recipes online for homemade mozzerella that look like fun to try, and again you don't really need any fancy equipment.

Bluegreen143

Hi, you really don't need any special equipment for jam making. I make mine in my biggest pan, which I also make stock in, and I've never ever had jam spill out of the top. I do have a jam funnel but I'd been making jam for ages before I got one - it makes pouring the jam into jars much easier but it is possible to do without being very careful with a sterilised ladle. If you start saving all the glass jars from bought jams, chutneys, mayo etc etc you can pot up your jam in those, just sterilise in the oven first. Love making jam, it tastes soooooo good

marmiterulesok

Angel_Jenny wrote: »

My problem is that whatever hobby I start I need to get the equipment for it. I don't have any big pans at all! I don't fancy getting any jam related injuries!

68 jars of jam?! Jealous, inspired and a little scared all at once! How long does a jar keep for?

Rhubarb and clove - never heard of that combination. That must be a big part of the fun getting to play around with all those flavours!

That method sounds very straightforward! I tend to assume that all skills that I haven't got are really really complicated and beyond me.

Could you borrow a pan for a short while?Or maybe use the largest pan you have and make a smaller quantity?

Wearing long sleeves is a good idea when making jam/chutney btw!

Or alternatively,if you were to buy a pressure cooker to do jams in,and decided that making jam doesn't really interest you,you could use the pressure cooker for other things afterwards.

I started making jams and chutney two years ago.I started out making jams with one part sugar to two parts jam as it seemed healthier.Then my wise Mum pointed out that jams made with equal quantities of fruit to sugar keep longer because of the higher sugar content and I decided this was my prefered method.I store the jams in the cellar and they all look fine.I'm working my way through 2010.:o

I'd always made rhubarb and ginger jam but my Mum suggested cloves as a varient(I used ground cloves):it really is a winning combination.

I certainly get a lot of pleasure making jam.:)

PS I have made soft cheeses as well,using vegetarian rennet.It worked really well and wasn't hugely complicated.I had a nice soft cheese which I flavoured with salt and pepper.If I can get hold of some veggie rennet again,I'll try again.

You can drink the whey that is leftover or use it in cooking/baking.It's a refrshing drink.It'll risk boiling over like milk does though.I put it in soup I was making and it boiled over.:mad:

HTH.

morwenna

I use a stainless steel pasta pan (minus the drainer insert) for jams and cheese making - bought for about £15 as I recall.. it has the liquid measurements on the inside, just like the Lakeland maslin pan (handy for jelly making)

I don't think you need to use unhomegenised milk for cheese - have a try at a simple ricotta style recipe using "normal" milk. Otherwise add cream to homogenised milk to add the cream element back in

valk_scot

Angel_Jenny wrote: »

My problem is that whatever hobby I start I need to get the equipment for it.

And that's why it's probably not going to be worth your while to do this sort of thing for half a dozen jars of jam a year and a few loaves of bread tbh. Because it's not worth doing as a hobby but it is worth doing if you go at it from a money saving point of view.

Yes you can go and spend £££s at Lakeland on a shiney new pan, jam thermometer, jelly bag, fancy jars with matching lids and mob caps, pretty labels etc and make your jam with expensive preserving sugar and bought in fruit. Your jam will end up costing you more than you pay for finest jam in the shop, but it's a hobby so that doesn't matter.
Or you can buy a pressure cooker base from the charity shop (you don't need the lid or seal so a wrecked lid that you throw away is fine) for £1, learn to test jam for sit on a chilled saucer, strain your jellies through a cheap teatowel, recycle jars fropm other foodstuffs, buy a pack of cellophane covers from the newsagent and make your own fancy caps from some leftover fabric. Oh, and use the cheapest sugar from the bargain store and free hedgerow fruits or your allotment neighbour's rhubarb glut. Cost per jar then? Not a lot and if you make as much as you can to trade for other things, you'll get your own jam for free almost.

As for cheese and butter, I make it when I find cheap cream or full fat milk in the reduced to clear. I make butter in my Kenwood Chef but you can shake the cream in a jar instead, or use a hand mixer. Freeze it in yoghurt pots. It's a real moneysaver.
Curd cheese is simple.....bring your full cream milk up to the scalding point, add lemon juice, allow the curds to form then strain and squeeze out the buttermilk using a piece of scalded muslin in a sieve. You can add cream to the milk but it's not necessary. Add salt/chopped chives/pineapple or whatever you like. It freezes too.
Oh, and yoghurt can be made in a big glass jar wrapped in a towel and kept in the airing cupboard. None of these need any sort of unusual equipment, apart from a piece of muslin.

Don't forget to use the buttermilk for baking btw.


Bread. Cheapest way is to make it by hand, or if you have a kitchen mixer like my ancient Chef it might have a dough hook. Or buy a breadmaker...after wearing out two expensive breadmaking machines my cheapo Tesco replacement has outlasted them all, and makes an excellent loaf. I use supermarket own brand bread flours and yeast and it's much cheaper than the store bought equivelent. But you don't have to go out and buy a £100 Panasonic just to make bread, a bowl and your hands will work just as well.

As they say, you pay your money and you get to choose....why not start simple, see if you like doing it and whether the results are to your taste first? Otherwise the next jam pan someone picks up for a song in the charity shop might be your discarded one....;)

SpikyHedgehog

Angel_Jenny wrote: »

£2 - big price difference! It was a gorgeous pan though ..... sad I know but I get excited over pans and jars!

Ah - that way sounds easier. The way I had heard of from my pen pals was water bath canning I think. Sounded dangerous!

I live in a town so will have to check around for places to get cheaper fruit and foraging for things would be fun as long as I don't poison myself!

Angel_Jenny wrote: »

We don't have a Wilkinsons here! Wondered if there was that much of a difference in quality - or if it was just the Lakeland name.

A big pan will be an essential then. I can't imagine that covering the oven in jam would make me popular!

The Lakeland pan is advertised for jam and cheese - I don't think we have any big pans so I would probably need one from somewhere.

I think I need to do some reading up! Like on were to by unhomogenised milk for one thing and where to get cheaper fruit / sugar for another.

Wilkinsons do online shopping - I got some stuff from them last year. If you've got open spaces near you, they could have fruit. We got loads of blackberries last year from the local ' open space' - used to all be allotments, but the council put a play area on some of them & made an open space of the rest, so there's various fruit trees around.

Angel_Jenny

I do want to go about this in a reasonably frugal type of way. All the shiny new equipment is exciting though! Basically I want to learn the skills involved and have fun doing it!

Things tend to start off as a hobby (just eases me into it and means that I don't mind too much if it turns out that I am rubbish at it!) like knitting was a hobby and social thing but now it feels more practical - like a proper skill.

I didn't know that Wilkinsons were online! Asking about there are brambles quite nearby so I am hoping the path is open (blocked since the flooding) by the time they are ripe. I have a book on foraging so I will have a flick though. I think there is a quince tree or two in the park but I don't know if you can just pick things in parks!

I saw vegetarian rennet in Lakeland!

Angel_Jenny

valk_scot wrote: »

And that's why it's probably not going to be worth your while to do this sort of thing for half a dozen jars of jam a year and a few loaves of bread tbh. Because it's not worth doing as a hobby but it is worth doing if you go at it from a money saving point of view.

Yes you can go and spend £££s at Lakeland on a shiney new pan, jam thermometer, jelly bag, fancy jars with matching lids and mob caps, pretty labels etc and make your jam with expensive preserving sugar and bought in fruit. Your jam will end up costing you more than you pay for finest jam in the shop, but it's a hobby so that doesn't matter.
Or you can buy a pressure cooker base from the charity shop (you don't need the lid or seal so a wrecked lid that you throw away is fine) for £1, learn to test jam for sit on a chilled saucer, strain your jellies through a cheap teatowel, recycle jars fropm other foodstuffs, buy a pack of cellophane covers from the newsagent and make your own fancy caps from some leftover fabric. Oh, and use the cheapest sugar from the bargain store and free hedgerow fruits or your allotment neighbour's rhubarb glut. Cost per jar then? Not a lot and if you make as much as you can to trade for other things, you'll get your own jam for free almost.

As for cheese and butter, I make it when I find cheap cream or full fat milk in the reduced to clear. I make butter in my Kenwood Chef but you can shake the cream in a jar instead, or use a hand mixer. Freeze it in yoghurt pots. It's a real moneysaver.
Curd cheese is simple.....bring your full cream milk up to the scalding point, add lemon juice, allow the curds to form then strain and squeeze out the buttermilk using a piece of scalded muslin in a sieve. You can add cream to the milk but it's not necessary. Add salt/chopped chives/pineapple or whatever you like. It freezes too.
Oh, and yoghurt can be made in a big glass jar wrapped in a towel and kept in the airing cupboard. None of these need any sort of unusual equipment, apart from a piece of muslin.

Don't forget to use the buttermilk for baking btw.


Bread. Cheapest way is to make it by hand, or if you have a kitchen mixer like my ancient Chef it might have a dough hook. Or buy a breadmaker...after wearing out two expensive breadmaking machines my cheapo Tesco replacement has outlasted them all, and makes an excellent loaf. I use supermarket own brand bread flours and yeast and it's much cheaper than the store bought equivelent. But you don't have to go out and buy a £100 Panasonic just to make bread, a bowl and your hands will work just as well.

As they say, you pay your money and you get to choose....why not start simple, see if you like doing it and whether the results are to your taste first? Otherwise the next jam pan someone picks up for a song in the charity shop might be your discarded one....;)

I went around the charity shops looking for pans and couldn't find any. That said, the charity shops around here are rubbish for anything other than books! I did find a book on herb and healing plants, one on a family's journey to having a smallholding and one called A Slice of Organic Life. Fascinating stuff!

I never thought of making butter. I don't tend to look at the reduced products in the supermarkets.

It is all these practical skills that I am lacking. My parents and grandparents are all about convenience - my grandma loves the pre-chopped carrots and grated cheese in bags. Making things by hand just was never important. It was always why make something that you can buy in the supermarket.

I love making bread by hand so don't need a breadmaker. I think that would be something that would end up gathering dust ..... like the electric mixer that never gets used. I try to buy those flavoured bread mixes when they are on offer.