Jam it up

"If he were to cut the sugar to say 70%"

I don't weigh the ingredients but no more than one part sugar to 4 parts fruit in volume-I can imagine ingesting all that sugar.

As it happens I'm down to my last jar of Blackberry jam-a sad time around here......

Ok .... seems I'm on the right track .... should be safe to go down to 50% even ..... I'm presuming that yours still set .... or do you use the setting agent stuff????

He is defending his Country womwns association recipe .... twill take a bit of sweet talk to get him to adjust.....

My husband is the jam maker here. He always uses 1 kilo fruit: 500 g sugar and no pectin. It sets with no problem although it usually has to be cooked a little longer than with equal amounts of sugar.

French traditionally use a ratio of 1:1, but it's too sweet.

The sugar is what preserves it so be careful reducing it.

First, are we talking about what Americans call "jam," the stuff with chunks of fruit in it? Or are we talking about the stuff that is strained before putting in jars, so it is clear, with no fruit or seeds?

How ripe is the fruit to begin with? That's one thing that is key. The trade off is, if you don't add pectin, then the riper the fruit, the lest natural pectin. Also, if you cut the sugar down too much, it won't set properly.

One common reason for lack of flavor is cooking too long. He might want to try cooking smaller batches, so that it doesn't need to cook as long before it's ready. Take a look here for one method.

I'm talking about "jam", like with pieces of fruit. Not jelly, although my husband made crabapple jelly for the first time last year.

He used to use pectin for cherry jam because they give off so much liquid that it took forever to set. But not for anything else: orange, plum, mirabelles, apricot... And they keep well and set properly.

I make freezer jam-not nearly the amount of fuss-and if it's a bit runny I can live with it.

bjd, I drain off a lot of the liquid in cherry jam and save it for use as syrup. Then I cook the rest a bit longer, and it sets up nicely.

Also worth doing: smash some of the cherry stones to get out the kernels, and put a kernel or two in every jar for the perfume.

Edited by: Neneh Cherry

Thanks, Vinny. The cherries are going to be ripe in a couple of weeks. I'll suggest the kernel business if there are enough for jam. In the past few years, it rains just when they are getting ripe enough and they rot.

He did that with the "almond" in apricot stones -- put a couple in every jar, but I didn't find it made much difference.