Jam Making Help

kylelay

Hi,
Hopefully this is the right board to post this on. I have a huge amount of strawberries and raspberries about to ripen in my garden and I would like to make some jam. Does anyone know the best/cheapest place to get jam jars from? I don't have time to start saving my empties for this years harvest unfortunately.
Also, can anyone recommend a pretty fool proof jam recipe for me please? I a bit of a food gardening newbie.
Thanks :beer:

meg72

I find new jars are so expensive and the postage especially, I would recommend looking for basic or SP jams, eg lemon curd 22p great for tarts, or pickles putting the contents in the freezer and using the jars.
Alternatively google freezer jam and use the plastic tubs in poundland, 10 for a 1.00.

culpepper

you may be able to get some free jars through freecycle if you put in a request.

babyshoes

Ditto asking on Freecycle or Freegle, whichever it is in your area. Also ask around friends, colleagues and family - even if they can only rescue a couple of jars before recycling day, it does add up.

In the past we've bought multiple jars of basic items which we will use up in time, such as honey, mustard, sauces etc and decanted the contents into a very large mayo jar or other containers to use later. You could freeze a lot of sauces in ziploc bags if necessary.

Even if you ended up buying the absolute cheapest jars of 'something' and throwing away the contents, it would still be cheaper than buying new jars... Don't go for spicy, tomatoey things in jars though, it tends to taint the lid. I'm sure you don't fancy curry-scented strawberry jam. It will eventually come clean, but the effort is generally not worth it unless you already have the jars and really need to use them.

In terms of recipes, we tend to use the river cottage recipes - they are generally fairly reliable. We have a book, but I'm sure most will be available online too.

kylelay

Thanks for the replies :T Great idea re. buying sp jam etc and just using the jars! I think that's what I shall do - there is no freecycle or freegle where I live and new jars online are more expensive than filled sp ones :eek:

Gigervamp

It seems a real waste to dump the contents of value jars just to get the jars. I'd ask everyone I know for any jars they may have (not pickle or savoury sauce jars though as you can't get rid of the smell).
The fruit can be frozen and used for jam when you have enough jars.

-taff

Buy honey or something useful and put it in one big jar.

Most jam recipes are half sugar to fruit, and if you don'thave a thermomenter, you boil it till it comes ot a rolling boil, you will be able to tell what that is if it's hot enough, then stick a plate in the fridge, after 5 minutes of boiling put osme on the plate, put it back in the fridge for a minute or two, then push your finger through it. If it wrinkes, it's ready.
Strawberries are a mushy fruit so don't expect many lumps left by the itme you've made it. Although, if you search for fridge raspberry jam, i expect you can do the same with strawberries, it uses less sugar too.

Another vote for river cottage preserves too.

meg72

Gigervamp wrote: »

It seems a real waste to dump the contents of value jars just to get the jars. I'd ask everyone I know for any jars they may have (not pickle or savoury sauce jars though as you can't get rid of the smell).
The fruit can be frozen and used for jam when you have enough jars.

No you do not dump the contents of value jar, stick it in freezer and yes you can use pickle jars, just wash well and soak in Bicarbonate soda.

Gigervamp

-taff wrote: »

Most jam recipes are half sugar to fruit,

I'm sure I've read that there should be at least 60% sugar, eg 1 kilo fruit and 600g sugar, in order to preserve the jam. The recipe on the packs of jam sugar you can buy uses even more, think it was the same quantities of fruit and sugar.

Meg72, thanks for the tip re bicarb. Don't think I've tried that one.

-taff

well done, oops other way around....
read the recipe instead of listening to me
I do half fruit to sugar or equal if it's really bitter, like oranges etc.....but i do like my jam tart so I put a lot less. I have stuff i made into jelly 3 years ago still looking good in the jar, and not tasting bad either

M.E.

If you have no jars with lids, why not use mugs, with cellophane and elastic bands. Very old style.
Indeed if the container (glass or ceramic) can be sterilised (dishwasher is fine) and the rim is smooth and can be covered with cellophane, then you can put hot jam in them