Jams,chutneys and the other preserves-anybody still doing it?

Wraithlady

The brambles are definitely peaking about now - we've got a good few pounds stashed in the freezer for winter crumbles.

Not as much as 2 years ago, when I was able to make bramble jelly, but we and the neighbours have tackled the bit beyond the garages so it's a lot less overgrown.

Miró

Does anyone have a good recipe for a spiced damson and/or apple chutney that doesn't take hours to simmer down to a thick consistency please!? The recipe I have been using for years always takes 3 hrs+, (despite recipe saying 1 hr), and I always get fed up of the stirring and waiting and give up too soon therefore ending up with a runny chutney which I regret later.

Any help much appreciated as apples are a-gogo now

buildersdaughter

Pickled onions - consider shallots - more expensive but IMHO much nicer. I don't eat that many though, if I got through several jars I'd use onions!
I bottle fruit .

mumf

Pickling eggs today.Breakfast and more tea first,though.

medsdemon

Making Rowan berry jelly today. My first try at a Jelly or jam ever.
Hoping to make a bramble jelly once the Scottish brambles ripen up and going to give lime and lemon marmalade a shot. Also something with sloes.
Reasoning is I like foraging but trying also to cut down on buying packaged stuff. I know the talk is all about plastic which I’m trying to cut down but also want to cut down on buying in glass etc and reusing the jars and filling up with my own makes seems the obvious thing to do.

Camomile

A bit late to the party.

Thanks Misha for the tips. Purchased a few book, one of them by M. Patten.Love this book, clearly written with instructions, possible combinations/tweaks and no fancy pics.

Made strawberry jam, despite using jam sugar and lemons and reaching the setting point it’s still runny. Mi MIL said that her mother was excellent at jams/preserves and she dreded making strawberry jam as it’s very temperamental and hard to achieve.

Made a couple of chutneys, they taste ok but obviously need to mature.

Frith

This year I’ve made:
Plum jam
Raspberry jam
Blackberry jelly
Marrow chutney
Lemon curd (which got me a first in the village show!)

PipneyJane

Camomile wrote: »

A bit late to the party.

Thanks Misha for the tips. Purchased a few book, one of them by M. Patten. Love this book, clearly written with instructions, possible combinations/tweaks and no fancy pics.

Made strawberry jam, despite using jam sugar and lemons and reaching the setting point it’s still runny. Mi MIL said that her mother was excellent at jams/preserves and she dreaded making strawberry jam as it’s very temperamental and hard to achieve.

Made a couple of chutneys, they taste ok but obviously need to mature.

I've never had enough strawberries to attempt strawberry jam but, a few years ago now, I made runny Crab Apple Jelly. At the time, I didn't know what I'd done wrong, so asked here on the OS Board. Turns out, I'd been so paranoid about over-boiling my jelly, that I didn't boil it for long enough. The advice I was given was "don't test for set until your jelly/jam has been boiling for 10 minutes", which I've followed successfully, ever since.

HTH

- Pip

CAFCGirl

Would love to join in on sharing ideas, tips and recipes.

I've pulled the remaining damsons from my allotment and my goal is to make a Asian inspired plum sauce.

I'm going to cook them down in my slow cooker after stoning, with some five spice, honey, salt, pepper and some chilli. Then I'm going to blitz in the food processor, and then cook it down on the hob.

Next up is roasted pepper and tomato pasta sauce (hopefully) for jarring.

I'd love to do some pickled onions or shallots too.

Doing_it_my_way

I've just made 6 jars of blackberry jam, I usually have no problems and it sets beautifully, this lot wont though! Any tips? Its the same amount of blackberries to sugar and i've added in some apple sauce