# Who makes jam or jelly?



## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Does anyone else make jam or jellies anymore?

Yesterday I made applejelly with fruit that fell off the tree and were never treated with pesticides or whatever. There were 3 varieties, in the picture is one of them.

Started by washing and cutting them the day before in quarters or smaller, skin on, core not removed; both contribute to color and deliver pectine to help the gelification.

I used around 3,5 kilo of apples. Put in a large cookingpot and just cover with water. Some let this cook, I go for slow cooking at temperature just below cooking point for 3-4 hours. The apples get very soft but don't fall apart.

Now they must go through a cooling fase where the water will get even more infused. It went in the cellar overnight. Just after the cooking I added some flavors; 1/2 teaspoon of sechuan peppercorns, 1 staranis, 5 cracked kardemom pods, 1 cinnamon stick and the peel and juice of a lemon.

Next morning, pour everything through a cheesecloth to filter and, to carefully pack and knot the cooked apples in. This package needs to be hung up so the remaining juice can drip out. If you press on the apple package the jelly will get cloudy and never be transparent! My preparation yielded 2200 grams of liquid.

Time to make the jelly. For apples, I use 800 gram sugar to 1000 gram juice, so it has to cook for a good while (1 hour for this batch!), depending on the amount of juice.

I use my own method to make jams and jelly;

I start by washing the jars and put them upright in my oven at 130°C to sterilize. The lids remain in cold water until use.

Also in the oven goes the sugar! Now start by boiling the juice without the sugar, then add the hot sugar; this shortens the cooking time and for some reason, there will be no foam on the preparation while cooking. Keep checking the gelification by putting a little on a cold plate. Then fill the hot jars, turn lid on and turn them upside down until almost cooled. This will seal the jars airtight. A nice homemade label and done. Fabulous taste on some bread or with a wildpâté or foie gras...


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

_Does anyone else make jam or jellies anymore?_

Actually quite a few of us do, Chris. In fact, we have at least one member, JamLady, who both teaches the art and does it commerically. Our unofficial canning pro is JustPJ, who has written several articles about canning and preserving for Cheftalk. But they are just two of many, me included, who put foods by on a regular basis.

BTW, your method of turning the jars until they seal is "officially" frowned upon in the United States. But, then again, the powers that be also recommend against wax sealing, which makes us the only country that does.


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Yes, me too, I make jam, though i don;t have too much time any more.  Also pickles sometimes. 

I once found a tree full of crabapples in the mountains, and we stopped the car and i made wonderful jelly, similar to yours.  I don;t add any flavors, i love the simple flavor of the jelly.  And when i can find them, i love quince jelly.


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## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

Me, too!

Jelly (pronounced in Scotland as Jeely) from apples, brambles (known elsewhere as blackberries), rhubarb.  My Mum did a wonderful apple and rosehip jelly. I also have a quince and make quince jelly - amazing with pork or poultry.

Jams - strawberry, raspberry, blaeberry, plum and greengage,  gooseberry preserve,

Curds - lemon, orange, tangerine and grapefruit

Chutnies - too many different types to list!

Mincemeat - to use in mince-pies at Christmas and other dishes throughout the year

Marmalade -  I make enough from the Seville oranges that come into the shops in late Jan/Feb to do most of the year - and I also make other marmalades with tangerines, lemons and grapefruit.


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Thanks all for replying! I notice quice jelly being mentioned a few times. It's also my favorite. I make it usually in januari with fruit comming from Turkey or Spain. Quince trees are probably extinct in the region I live. I heard from older people, many farms had at least a quince tree. They're all gone. I make it very much exactly as the apple jelly, but with no addition of spices.

With the remaining pulp I tried to make "membrillo", a fruitpaste well known in Spain and many times served in tapas with queso manchego.

It's simply cooking the remaining fruitpulp with sugar until it thickens. It takes a very long time to cook, so I did this only once. I kept the paste in my fridge where it lasted for over two years! I used some to throw in sweet sauces.

@KYHeirloomer; I always use the method of turning the jars upside down to seal and have had zero problems so far even after keeping the product for over 2 years! In fact, when making jam, I heat the jars up to 130°C in the oven. This allows me to pour the boiling hot jam -straight from the fire- in the jars without any risk of cracking the glass. I think it might be essential to produce a high heat to ensure a good sealed jar. I used to put the lids in the oven too, but it took so much force trying to opening the pots, that I stopped doing this. Also, but I guess you have the same jars in the US, the lids have to be clad on the inside with a thin elastic coating.


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## summer57 (Sep 21, 2010)

I've been canning jam and jelly, salmon, tomatoes, peaches, apricots, plus pickling, for several years now. Just put away all the canning gear last weekend! I'm a Canadian, but like KYHeirloomer, I follow North American canning practices (http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/ is a good example).

'Eating Local', along with community and home gardens, has become quite popular here in the last couple of years, and canning/preserving neighbourhood groups have sprung up around the area. It's fun to get together in one big kitchen to chop, boil and can together! When I saw a canning class at the local Gourmet Warehouse, I knew that canning's hit the mainstream!

Quinces -- I found a quince tree in my neighbourhood, and the owners gladly allow me to pick them. They're so hard, my arm/shoulder aches after chopping a batch. Well worth it, though!

My favourite jam/jelly combo -- red currant / raspberry. The best!


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

I don't necessarily follow the USDA guidelines and recommendations, Summer. Just wanted to make sure people understood there are differences, so they can make educated choices.

For instance, using open kettle canning (which is what Chris is doing) has long been repudiated by all North American food science organizations. But the rest of the world has no guidelines against it.

My feelings are that, with soft spreads, it doesn't matter. Why? Because the spoilage mechanism in sugar-cured products is mold, which you can see. If you open a jar and there's mold, throw it out. End of subject.

Same with wax sealing. Although USDA recommends against it, when done properly it effect the exact same seal as does a two-piece lid. Trouble is, using wax is cumbersome, potentially dangerous, subject to seal failure, and the jars cannot be stacked in storage. Using lids and a bwb is more efficient all around. If you use wax, however, seal failures are irrelevent for the same reason as open kettle: if the stuff is spoiled, it shows.

But for products where the spoilage mechansim is bacteria there may or may not be sensory indications. Boutulism, in particular, cannot be seen nor smelled. So, while millions of jars of low-acid foods have been safely canned using open kettle and boiling water baths, my choice is to avoid those practices (that's why God gave us pressure canners, you see), and to not eat anything anyone else has canned that way.


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

KYHeirloomer said:


> (that's why God gave us pressure canners, you see),


Unfortunately he didn;t give them to us here in Italy. So when someone gives me their delectable oil-packed vegetables (wonderful eggplant with garlic, etc) I sadly just throw it out, unless they ate from it first. It's rare enough anyway, but my mother in law used to do this all the time. I don;t like canned vegetables anyway (except for tomatoes, which are not dangerous for botulism anyway, for the acid) so i don't can them.


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

KYHeirloomer said:


> ...
> 
> My feelings are that, with soft spreads, it doesn't matter. Why? Because the spoilage mechanism in sugar-cured products is mold, which you can see. If you open a jar and there's mold, throw it out. End of subject.
> 
> ...


I absolutely agree. In the old days, people made jams and sealed them with a layer of hot wax poured on top ot the preparation and a paper over the jar to keep the dust out. Sometimes there appeared a tiny bit of mold on the edges, but people removed it and ate the jam anyway. On the other hand, when I was a kid, I used to help can haricot verts in big glass jars with a rubber band and a glass lid. These were sealed by cooking them in a specially designed kettle after each jar was equipped with a some sort of a steelwire "muzzle". When they opende it, they simply smelled the content. If it smelled funny, the content was simply dumped. I would guess many had bad experiences first.
[hr][/hr]
We're now a few days later and I tasted the apple jelly. It's the first time I used spices in a jam or jelly. On the other hand I always use lemonjuice in jams. Lemon takes the flavor to another level and it helps the pectine in the gelification.

The spices experiment was inspired by the Chinese 5 spices powder I already used on an appletart that came out delicious. The main ingredients of the Chinese 5 spices powder(I buy this already made) are sechuan pepper, star anis and cinnamon. I left out fennelsead and cloves. Also, I didn't use powder but whole sechuan peppercorns(AKA lemonpepper in my country, same as Japanese sanchopepper), one small whole star anis(very powerful taste) and a stick of cinnamon and as an extra, added these wonderful kardemompods, just a little cracked to keep the seeds inside. All of these weren't actually cooked, but added at the end of the cookingtime of the apples, and left in the whole night.

Well, this is such a delight! All flavors are quite toned down and merged. There's still the apples, but a little dominant factor coming from the cinnamon.

I can already imagine to make duckbreast, fat seared away in a pan and then finished in the oven with a thin layer of this apple jelly brushed on top... Also, I already know this will be a big hit with some foie gras terrine.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Only do a few variities for my shop.

By far the best seller is orange marmalade.  These get "put up" in 250 ml /1/2 pint jars.  I use about 50% peel in the marmalade, and with the rest of the peel, I candy it, using it in my confections and chocolates.

I also do strawberry and blueberry, usually buying these locally at peak of season.  They don't sell as well as the marmalade though.

I use a 15 qt electric steam kettle to cook the marmalade in, and the old-fashioned closed lid canner. My commerical d/washer comes in handy keeping the jars hot and moist.  Fairly plain jane stuff, I guess, but then again, I'm selling it in my store.

Sometime next week I'll try my hand at making and canning mince meat.  All-fruit mincemeat that is, over the summer I've been drying my own cherries and blueberreis, as well as candying orange and lemon peel.  Love to try my hand at candying Angelica, but don't know enough to grow it and don't know where to buy it.  Next year maybe.....

Right now it's fruit cake time, and other than the the raisins and sultanas, all the other fruit has either been candied or dried by "Moi".  It's usually a good seller


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

_Angelica, but don't know enough to grow it _

Foodpump, once you start it, Angelica is relatively easy to grow. Unfortunately, starting it can be difficult, because angelica seed is relatively nonviable (about 16%), and doesn't last long; shelflife on angelica seed is considered to be six months. So most new plants are started by root division. Which means, of course, that you need access to a plant in the first place.

Sort of an herbal catch 22.

The group of herbs in the angelica group (there are about 50 of them) are either biennials or weak perennials (that is, they last 3-5 years is all).

Much of the Angelica used by herbalists is wildcrafted rather than grown. But you might check with Richo Cech at Horizon Herbs (www.horizonherbs.com) about availability of seeds, plants, or roots.


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

foodpump said:


> Only do a few variities for my shop.
> 
> By far the best seller is orange marmalade. These get "put up" in 250 ml /1/2 pint jars. I use about 50% peel in the marmalade, and with the rest of the peel, I candy it, using it in my confections and chocolates.
> 
> ...


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

_Must Be Jelly, Cause Jam Don't Shake Like That_.

BDL


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Thanks for the info BDL, I'll be contacting them after the "silly season" ('bout now till January) is over and I have a chance to look at my garden again. 

--And no sly jokes about Vancouverites and "gardening"!!!!!!!....

I read somewhere it was a Gourmand's dream to have angelica flavoured brioches served warm accompanied with a good shop of Benidictine.  Can't remember whom, but it sure sounds good


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Foodpump & Chefross, any chance on you both publishing your marmelade recipes? Thanks!


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Dead simple.

10 kg peeled oranges

4 kg orange peel

7.7 kg sugar

Process fruit in the robot-coupe

blanch peel 3 times, chop up fine

Combine all three and gently cook until it "sheets" when dropping from a spoon,

Process in hot water bath 

This batch is sized to fit my 15 qt steam kettle and gives me about 48-- 250 ml jars


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## summer57 (Sep 21, 2010)

Hi foodpump -- do you think blood oranges would work for your marmalade? I love the colour, but maybe too sweet for marmalade? (and no jokes from me about a Vancouver garden!)


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Thanks Foodpump, I never made orange marmelade but I'm going to try... a very little smaller batch than yours.

I suppose you don't peel the oranges "a vif" (no white, cutting the segments out) since you make this big batches.


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

summer57 said:


> Hi foodpump -- do you think blood oranges would work for your marmalade? I love the colour, but maybe too sweet for marmalade? (and no jokes from me about a Vancouver garden!)


blood oranges too sweet??? blood oranges are rarely very sweet at all.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

foodpump said:


> Thanks for the info BDL, I'll be contacting them after the "silly season" ('bout now till January) is over and I have a chance to look at my garden again.
> 
> --And no sly jokes about Vancouverites and "gardening"!!!!!!!....
> 
> I read somewhere it was a Gourmand's dream to have angelica flavoured brioches served warm accompanied with a good shop of Benidictine. Can't remember whom, but it sure sounds good


Uhhh... Sorry about that KY Heirloomer, I made a big mistake. Thank you for the information.


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

Not a problem, Foodpump.

BTW, check out Richters, up in your neck of the woods. They are (or were) a rather large herbal supply company, including mail order. If they're still in business you should be able to find them with a quick search.


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## patriciagb (Apr 21, 2010)

hi chris

i loooooove making jams n jellies, i just picked quinces  and grapes from the garden n made jelly (not together though) n it was very yummy!!!! last year i was short of time so i boiled the grapes until soft, put it over night hanging in the cheesecloth and the following morning put the liquid in plastic bags n straight to the freezer!!! a couple of weeks later, when i had the time, i defrosted the juice and carried on w the process n the result was perfect!!!!!!!


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## worldcook (Oct 4, 2010)

I enjoyed reading everyone's ideas and recipes. I like to try different jams, although I am now trying different ideas on how to make low sugar recipes since my daughter was just diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. My mother in law used to make a pear spread/preserve that was simply full of the pear flavor- not a lot of other spices. She can't remember how she did it. So I tried cooking the pears like I would apples for sauce, then added some xylitol and sugar and then tried thickening it with some cooked type clear jel. It turned out fairly well, but not like I remember it. I should have put a little lemon juice. Any other ideas or recipes you all may have would be welcomed.


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## homemadecook (Jan 27, 2010)

ChrisBelgium said:


> Does anyone else make jam or jellies anymore?


I really love that picture of yours. Thanks for that post! /img/vbsmilies/smilies//smile.gif


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

@Patriciagb; Thanks for the idea of freezing the juice!

@ Worldcook; I really hope you find a nice recipe for your little girl. Sugar is not really necessary for the gelification of fruitjuices. You could experiment a little with "agar-agar", it is vegetal (sea alges) and comes in powder or in branches. Easy to find in Asian food chops as a substitute for gelatine. I know people make healthy sweets from just unsweetened fruitjuice and agar-agar. It's a bit tricky how many you should use. It has double the gelfication power than gelatine (per the same weight).

You could heat some natural pressed applejuice without sugar, leave to cool just below cooking temperature and then add agar-agar; contrary to gelatine, agar-agar needs higher temperature to dissolve. I would guess half a teaspoon powdered one per 500cc juice is more than enough. This preparation won't keep forever and needs to be in the fridge. Agar-agar solutions are also used in labs as a feeding ground for... added bacteria. Don't let that alarm you too much, bacteria loooove a classic jam too when not kept properly. Applejuice sweetener is another problem. Maybe search for "stevia", a little controversial, but I know too little about sugar alternatives in general to be very helpful.

@HomeMadeCook; thanks!


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## summer57 (Sep 21, 2010)

Hi Worldcook,

No-sugar or low-sugar jams and jellies are easy to make, especially if you have access to no-sugar pectin and recipes. Here are a couple of links - http://www.pomonapectin.com/ and http://www.bernardin.ca/pages/light_recipes___reduced_sugar__salt/20.php


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## chef_matt (Mar 18, 2008)

I have a friend that uses no sugar added grape juice concentrate for the sugar some of the stuff he adds fructose to some of it....


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

I also make my own cranberry sauce(jellied and wholeberry) my own chutney, and my own mango salsa ,aside from jellies and jams.


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## homemadecook (Jan 27, 2010)

I will be trying this homemade apple jam by next week Chris, I'll let you know if I have made it the way you post it. Thanks again.


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Good luck HMC! Looking forward to your result.


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## jamlady (May 3, 2010)

@ Worldcook - an idea for making pear preserves that have some body.  Instead of processing your pears like an applesauce, try this.  Peel and core pears.  On your food processor, insert a "fine grate" disc.  Send your pears down the feed tube and let the processor create a fine shred pear.  Toss the shredded pears in a nonreactive pot with a 1/4 cup lemon juice for every 8 cups pears.  The lemon not only helps the pH value, but heigthens the pear flavor.  Sweeten as you will. 

Just an idea.  It can help give the preserve a bit more body while keeping the sugar low.  Also, adding a little cinnamon can fool the palate into believing it is tasting something quite sweet.  I think pears and cinnamon are divine, but then again I put cinnamon in my chili, my spag sauce, my hot chocolate - I'd put it in a pot roast if I remembered to!! lol!

Best of luck!


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## goldendd (Nov 24, 2010)

Do you ever make no sweetener fruit spread? I hear you need a special kind of pectin. Is that true? I would like to make a large batch and can it but I would like it to be viscous enough to spread.

David from Rowland Heights CA


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

goldendd said:


> Do you ever make no sweetener fruit spread? I hear you need a special kind of pectin. Is that true? I would like to make a large batch and can it but I would like it to be viscous enough to spread.
> 
> David from Rowland Heights CA


Do you mean some sort of unsweetened jam?

I would make that with agar-agar, it's no pectine but vegetal gelatine from seaweed.

Very tricky to dose exactly. 1 gram of agar-agar is more than enough to get watery mixes solid.

I suggest to make a try-out on a small batch. Clean and mix fruit. BTW, you can use only juice for this like applejuice! Simply bring the fruit to the boil, add agar-agar and let boil for a few seconds. That's it. It will become quite solid, but it can be blend or mixed again to turn it into a spreadable paste.


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## jayn (Mar 26, 2011)

I too have been preserving, making jams and only a few jellies for years. Raspberry is a summer staple and the easiest it almost makes itself. Others are more work, I make crabapple pomegrante jelly;  peach almond jam; clementine marmalade and some vegetable preserves as well.  Each year I seem to make less though as I age.


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## normandie2001 (Mar 15, 2011)

Just read your thread about jellies and jams.  Making jams and bottling fruit and vegetables are BIG where I live.   They also turn their jam pots upside down too.  I have bottled our black and red cherries, plums and peaches.  They lasted really well.  We use a steralisatuer in the garden and this year we are going to try using Eau - de Vie instead of water. 

I have some home grown recurrants in my freezer which I plan to make some redcurrant jelly ( love it with roasted lamb - its a Brit thing)  Do I need to top and tail them before cooking them?

Best regards

Normandie


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

_Quote Normandie; I have some home grown recurrants in my freezer which I plan to make some redcurrant jelly ( love it with roasted lamb - its a Brit thing) Do I need to top and tail them before cooking them?_

Each year I collect a lot of elderberries. A little similar to redcurrants in making jam or jelly. This may help, although there might be other methods.

I wash the fruit and take the berries from their stalks, which goes easy, just takes a lot of time. Then I cook them without sugar until soft, let cool a while and then pass them through a food mill using the finest sieve. All seeds etc. remain in the foodmill.

Please note that the fruit is cooked with no sugar in this stage, but I add the juice of 1/2 lemon per liter of juice and store the mixture away for a whole night. I always add lemonjuice in jams/jellies. It improves the taste dramatically, even when using sour fruits! Also helps the pectine to do it's work.

Only the next morning I proceed in my odd but very effective way;

- heat the oven at 110°C - put the sugar in an oventray and cover with an ovenplate - put in the lower part of the oven

- wash jars and put still wet, upward in the oven on another ovenplate- the jars dry and sterilize during the time you need to cook the jam. Also, pouring boiling hot jam in it will never cause them to break. One thing; don't put the lids in the oven!!

- heat the fruit gently to the boiling point

- carefully (very hot) take the sugar from the oven and pour in the fruit. This will bring the whole mixture to a boil very quickly! And strangely the jam will produce almost no scum at all.

- when the jam is done, immediately take the hot jars out of the oven, a few at a time, immediately fill with boiling hot jam, cover and put upside down on their lid.

- leave on their heads untill you can handle them, don't leave to cool entirely on their head.

I now still have a small batch of elderberry jam that's... 2 years old, still in perfect shape and delicious. I notice that the jars are very tightly closed the way I make them. Takes a lot of force to open them.


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## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

I always top n tail my redcurrants - maybe because that's the way my Mum and Granny started the process.

I make redcurrant jellies and sauce to go with venison..    great with collops!


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## mommat (Jul 29, 2012)

No, you are not alone.  I still put up a lot of fruit, jelly, jams and veges.  But my best is hot jalapeno jelly.  Teach this stuff to your kids. MommaT


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

This old thread has resurfaced.  I found some little green/purple plums today and they were very underripe, hard and sour.  The best for jam.  My jars are popping even as i write. 

I discovered a very quick way to get the seeds out. 

I make sure my chef knife is very sharp.  On a cutting board i lay the plum, then roll it under the blade crosswise (like around the belly, so the knife rolls over the stone.  Then lenghthwise in one direction, then crossing at top and bottom, lenghthwise the other direction.  then pick up the plum and twist.  The seed comes out easily and it's already cut up!  Much faster than trying to mash them in the jam pot when they;re cooking to get the seeds to detach and come to the surface. 

Someone was asking about low sugar jam and using grapejuice as sweetener, and the purpose was for a diabetic child.  Diabetics cannot eat sugar, period, or a very limited quantity.  Slow carbohydrates are best.  Honey, grape sugar, fructose, glucose sucrose, they;re all the same and all must be seriously limited.  beware.


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## margcata (Sep 18, 2011)

orange & fig preserves.JPG




__
margcata


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Aug 7, 2012








I have taken a course at Le Cordon Bleu in the Madrid Capital at their new Culinary Institute and had a bit of help, however, the one on the left is Fresh Fig Marmalade and the one on the right is assorted orange varieties including Blood Oranges.

Interesting post.

Have lovely summer.

Margaux.


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## jelly girl (Dec 12, 2013)

I love your labels!! How did you make them?


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Jelly Girl, I use graphic design software from Corel; CorelDraw. There are many similar apps around, many even free.

It allows you to make all kinds of labels in the sizes and colors of your choice. I start by making one label and then copy that label on a page as many times as I need the number of labels.

When they are nicely aligned both vertically and horizontally (CorelDraw allows you to do that), you can cut them easily using a rule. I glue them on with a glue stick type "Pritt" which works perfectly for home use!

I recently posted a thread that may interest you on making rose-hip and elderberry jam, with pictures; http://www.cheftalk.com/t/77349/what-kind-of-jams-are-you-making-its-jam-time


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## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

I simply freehand it by uploading a photo of something and then adding text, print, trim to my liking, elmer's glue stick (it comes right off under the water faucet) makes wonderful gifts any time of the year.

This was my first attempt at any jam or jelly, I think I will try it again in the spring/Summer with different fruits

http://www.cheftalk.com/t/78644/meyer-lemons-are-in-season#post_451973


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## wyandotte (May 24, 2011)

That jelly in the photo of the opening post sure is nice & clear. I could never get mine to look like that. Oh, well.

I never made jellies & jams until I discovered* Pomona's Pectin* many years ago, which I was glad to see someone here referred to. To make the fruit jell w/out Pomona's, you would have to use huge quantities sugar, which makes a sugar-tasting preserve, not a fruit-tasting one. Pomona's Pectin is gift from God, as far as I'm concerned.

Someone gave me many pounds of* wild red prairie plums* (frozen) that he had picked and so I've made some into jam; it is a bit of a bother having to get rid of the pits first, but I don't mind. We'll be having it with* Christmas dinner. *

I enjoy reading about others' jam making experiences.


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## butcherman (Oct 23, 2012)

CB:

Thank you for your generous post describing your jellymaking procedure.  I have always wanted to do this, and your post gives me the nudge and the info I need.  Not sure what those "stefanis" are to which you referred, but I guess Mister Google will find for me.

B'man


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

@Butcherman; the "stefanis" or as I wrote "staranis" is in fact "star anise". My bad, sorry for that. If any help needed, don't hesitate to ask.

@Wyandotte; the clear jelly is just a matter of not pushing on the apples that are dripping out, it has to go by itself without forcing it. Also, using pectin in this jelly will always make it a little cloudy. Apples have a lot of pectin in it, in fact, a lot of pectin is made from apples. Still, pectin shortens the cooking time drastically as you know.

Soon I'm going to make quince jelly which is somewhat the same procedure as I described in the first post (minus the spices). No other fruit has probably more pectin in it than quince. But again, the cooking time will be around 1 hour. In Spain they make a paste from the left-over pulp that is called "membrillo", often served with their cheese.


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