Too thick jam rescue

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Too thick jam rescue
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robkb

Joined: 29 May 2009
Posts: 4205
Location: SE London

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 10:25 am Post subject: Too thick jam rescue
Is this possible? Made a couple of jars of strawberry jam last night with fruit that was a bit squished, but it's way too thick. Can I just reheat it with some extra water to thin it down a bit?

gil
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Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 10:52 am Post subject:
Crikey, that's quite an achievement with strawberry jam, which usually sets with difficulty. Just how much too thick ? Chisel-it-out-of-the-jar solid ? To redo it, you'd have to add water, and boil it up again, and sterilise the jars etc etc yada yada. Which will alter the flavour. TBH, I'd eat it as it is, and maybe make another batch.

robkb

Joined: 29 May 2009
Posts: 4205
Location: SE London

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 10:57 am Post subject:

gil wrote:

Just how much too thick ? Chisel-it-out-of-the-jar solid ?

Yup - completely unspreadable

Oh well, it's only 2 jars - will put this one down to experience and try again.

12Bore

Joined: 15 Jun 2008
Posts: 9089
Location: Paddling in the Mersey

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 11:03 am Post subject:
Make scones, get cream

gil
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Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 11:21 am Post subject:

Could you stand the jars in hot water to loosen the sides, so the jam will come out more easily ?

I suspect that if it's that solid, it won't taste very nice.

On the next batch, try not to worry so much about setting point.

BTW, what method were you using to test for setting point ?

I think it is harder to deal with small amounts of fruit when making jam - two jars sounds like a very small batch.

What weight of fruit did you start with ?

robkb

Joined: 29 May 2009
Posts: 4205
Location: SE London

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 11:33 am Post subject:

For the setting point we used the cold saucer method.

And yes, it was a very small batch - allotment neighbour gave me a carrier bag of strawberries yesterday, some were okay to eat but about 2lbs were a bit overripe so we thought we'd try to make a couple of jars of jam rather than waste them!

I think you're right about smaller batches being more difficult - our last attempt was 14 jars of blackberry jam a couple of years ago and they were really good.

gil
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Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 11:45 am Post subject:

If you can get 3lb fruit, that's a better quantity.

Strawberry jam is a really difficult jam to make well.
Usually the problem is that it's too runny....

Hint/tip/trick to make poor-setting red-coloured fruit jam set easily :
Add a teacupful of redcurrant juice and an extra teacupful of sugar to the mix.

If you don;t mind a few redcurrants in your strawberry jam, just use a teacupful of the currants, and don;t bother faffing around with simmering and straining their juice.

It's always worth keeping a few teacupfuls of redcurrants in the freezer through to the next year, as the early fruits like rhubarb and strawberries are tricky to set for jam.

Another method would be to use cooking apple or crab apple juice in the same way, which is also handy to set paler fruit jams and jellies.

I find the redcurrant method better than using extra lemon juice - it is very easy to add too much lemon juice and end up with strawberry jam that tastes overwhelmingly of lemon.

robkb

Joined: 29 May 2009
Posts: 4205
Location: SE London

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 11:51 am Post subject:
Cheers gil, will keep your tips in mind for the next attempt!

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8618
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 12:40 pm Post subject:
Strawberry Cheese What does it taste like?

robkb

Joined: 29 May 2009
Posts: 4205
Location: SE London

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 1:10 pm Post subject:

gz wrote:

What does it taste like?

Ok - not as fruity as we'd hoped.

Hadn't thought of strawberry cheese - perhaps I'll try & market it as damsons are like hen's teeth round here

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8618
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 1:29 pm Post subject:
I made redcurrant cheese with the pulp from making redcurrant jelly...after much sieving beautiful.

Kenworth

Joined: 04 Apr 2011
Posts: 855
Location: Michigan

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 11 11:22 pm Post subject:
Do they not use pectin in jams and jellies to make them set?

jamanda
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Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Wed Jun 29, 11 6:30 am Post subject:

Kenworth wrote:

Do they not use pectin in jams and jellies to make them set?

That's what the redcurrents are for. They contain lots of pectin.

Rosemary Judy

Joined: 08 Aug 2005
Posts: 1215
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 11 7:51 pm Post subject:
Use it put in sponge puddings or jam roly poly - heat it with some water just before you use. I almost never re boil jam as it is sucha huge faff and you lose loads in the process - I eat lots of sponge puds if it sets too firm, and use the runny stuff on vanilla ice cream as a sauce..... most of my jam behaves, just in case anyone was wondering

Katieowl

Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Posts: 4317
Location: West Wales

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 11 8:07 pm Post subject:
I've got a smallish quantity of strawberries too that are not 'perfect' and I was wondering if I could Jam them, I've got some alpines too, and about 12 gooseberries. Should I bung a Bramley in to help set? or would that be too random? Kate

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