Help....My jam won't set

torbrex

u751904 wrote: »

thanks ladies, I agree with the taste. I am bowled over with the taste of the jam I have bought today. Great ideas...

and gents if you dont mind

skintbint_2

remember lemon curd if you can get cheap lemons, far superior to the fluoresant (???) guff you can buy in the shops, and recommend tins of mamade marmalade you get in tesco's http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=254850756, just alter the flavour by adding ginger or cinnamon or even a wee drop of brandy or whisky

u751904

another question on pectin, sorry. I am going to do plum jam. The book I have says that you use methylated spirit to test for pectin. I don' t have any. Do folk usually test for pectin like this? thanks

Farway

u751904 wrote: »

another question on pectin, sorry. I am going to do plum jam. The book I have says that you use methylated spirit to test for pectin. I don' t have any. Do folk usually test for pectin like this? thanks

Sorry to jump in, likewise making plum jam, similar problem, but I always thought the stones had pectin in,which was why the stones are left in, and the use of lemon juice

I suppose the easy solution, given price of Meths, is use preserving sugar or buy some pectin?

PS, just spotted this recent thread, seems pectin can be bit of an expensive myth, apple or lemon juice works fine
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3349320

u751904

I've got a pan of plums on the boil. Did 4lbs plums, 4 lbs sugar, 1 pt water. Its on a rolling boil now but seems to be taking ages to get to the setting point. The temp is 220f / 1.5 C so that is as it should be. I added the juice of two small lemons. As you can tell this is my first time jam making. I reckon it has been simmering / boiling for about 20 mins now. What am I doing wrong? Thanks

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

might not be enough pectin in, try chucking some lemon juice in, should do the trick!

u751904

ok I've added two small ones so far adding another couple. the fruit was the usual supermarket under ripe - would that have effected the pectin? thanks

u751904

the lady I spoke to the other day just used apple juice. I am having a bit of a nightmare at the moment. Got a massive pot of boiling jam on the go. Used all my lemons and it isn't really at setting level. So I am not really sure what to do. My first time and it's not been easy. I am not sure this jam will turn out. Plum was supposed to be easy !! oh well. Practice practice I guess. Just wasted the money....

floyd

Lemon juice doesn't contain much pectin at all. If your fruits are a type that are low in pectin you will need to add more either using bottled stuff like Certo or by combining with another fruit that has higher levels hence the reason you often see strawberry combined with apple or redcurrants. You can also make a pectin stock yourself from apples and keep it in the freezer. Lemon juice is usually added to increase the acidity of the mix to help the pectin set the jam.

In very ripe fruit there is less pectin than if the fruit is slightly underripe so I doubt that is your problem. Plum jam is usually fairly straightforward to set as it is a medium pectin fruit, sometimes newer cookers cannot support a high enough heat to get things really boiling hard.

It could be that there is just too much water in the recipe so it will take a long time to get to setting point

Sorry its not much help, stick with it as everyone who preserves will have had at least one disaster. I've had plum jam set like concrete, marmalade cooked so long its gone dark brown and still not set and burnt chutney that went in the bin so it happens to everyone

zippychick

we have a previous thread which may also help?

Let us know how you go and we will merge this later

ZIp