Jam not setting

Rosa_Damascena

Slinky said:

Just to report the jam has set, with a good consistency.  The only thing that happened with the second attempt is the fruit seems to have broken down a lot, so no chunks of strawberry in it.

Does it taste good though? That is the main metric of interest.

Slinky

Rosa_Damascena said:

Slinky said:

Just to report the jam has set, with a good consistency.  The only thing that happened with the second attempt is the fruit seems to have broken down a lot, so no chunks of strawberry in it.

Does it taste good though? That is the main metric of interest.

It does, although very sweet!  I've still got a kilo of strawberries in the freezer, I think I'll see if I can find a recipe for strawberry and rhubarb (also got loads of this) to reduce the sweetness level of the next batch.

Rosa_Damascena

Slinky said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

Slinky said:

Just to report the jam has set, with a good consistency.  The only thing that happened with the second attempt is the fruit seems to have broken down a lot, so no chunks of strawberry in it.

Does it taste good though? That is the main metric of interest.

It does, although very sweet!  I've still got a kilo of strawberries in the freezer, I think I'll see if I can find a recipe for strawberry and rhubarb (also got loads of this) to reduce the sweetness level of the next batch.

The tartness of rhubarb will offset the sweetness well and help with the colour (if pink, of course!!). But is also has a low pectin content so you'll have to play with that a bit more too.

Eta: what was your fruit to sugar ratio btw? Am tempted to have a go myself if I come across a glut of fruit this summer.

Slinky

Rosa_Damascena said:

Slinky said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

Slinky said:

Just to report the jam has set, with a good consistency.  The only thing that happened with the second attempt is the fruit seems to have broken down a lot, so no chunks of strawberry in it.

Does it taste good though? That is the main metric of interest.

It does, although very sweet!  I've still got a kilo of strawberries in the freezer, I think I'll see if I can find a recipe for strawberry and rhubarb (also got loads of this) to reduce the sweetness level of the next batch.

The tartness of rhubarb will offset the sweetness well and help with the colour (if pink, of course!!). But is also has a low pectin content so you'll have to play with that a bit more too.

Eta: what was your fruit to sugar ratio btw? Am tempted to have a go myself if I come across a glut of fruit this summer.

Kilo of fruit to kilo of sugar was what I was using. Made rhubarb and ginger jam a couple of months back and that was the same ratio. Have been using recipes I found on farmersgirlkitchen.co.uk

-taff

I watched a rell by Nancy Birtwhistle a few days ago about making your own pectin form windblown apples. Worth looking at...I'm currently boiling some form my allotment, but I do know of several trees with apples on that would suit locally, maybe you do too...

Slinky

We're getting a lot of windblowm plums from a tree in the neighbouring pub garden. OH picked a load up and put them in our garden bin, then left the bucket he'd used in the garage. Next thing there's load of fruitflies in the garage, and wasps around the garden bin, which is only collected fortnightly. Plums are now being returned over the pub wall into their garden under cover of darkness........

I'm not keen on plums, and what's landing on our garden isn't usable anyway, very soft and often split and waspy.

Our other neighbour has an apple tree not quite close enough to drop many apples on our side of the fence. It's usually loaded with fruit but I don't think they use much, if any of it. Don't really have enough contact with them to ask for some, and they've never offered, despite me giving them some of our strawberries a couple of years back.

-taff

There's never any jarm in asking, they can only say no, and who knows, you might end up having coffee and cake with them in the future