making jam yourself is stupidly expensive.

[ToniAlto]

We've got a glut of apples so started investigating the internet and adding to basket all the bits and pieces I think I'd need.

I've come to the conclusion that each jar of applesauce would be roughly £12, obviously reducing if I store and reuse the jars and equipment for the next ten years.

AIBU to think that home made jam/sauce is stupidly expensive.

You can slow cooker it and freeze it use it in baking like the Americans do?

We made it recently without any special equipment. Berries, jam sugar, old jam jars, pot on the cooker.
Ok it was a bit runny but very tasty.

Never found it so - you're basically paying for sugar, surely. If it's the jars costing, check on FB marketplace.

I've come to the conclusion that each jar of applesauce would be roughly £12

How is it coming to £12 a jar?

Well, yes, obviously the equipment/jars cost money - how is that a surprise?

Otherwise, dunno, I make preserves, and sure, I can get a cheaper jar of chutney in Aldi but I could also pay more in the local Wankery Artisatan Foods store. Mine tastes nicer.

(If you are making apple jam you want to can it; it won't have enough sugar to risk without, IMO.)

Are you including pans and jars?

I just save my jars from bought sauces etc through the year the. Each autumn make jam and chutney. My only expenses were a good sugar thermometer and a decent funnel. Oh, and all the fucking sugar 🤣

How are you getting costs that high?!? I made jam recently with free fruit and even when buying jars (£4 for 6) it worked out around a pound a jar.

I have no idea why each jar would cost £12, that seems a crazy amount. I just cook mine down and freeze it without any sugar so I can use it for whatever I want later. The other alternative is chutney which is probably cheaper than making jam as just needs cheap vinegar rather than lots of sugar that it more expensive. I also save jars or pick them up on marketplace for free so there is no cost involved.

With apples, we make chutney or apple and chilli jelly. Bit more faff than jam but delicious. With our apple glut I just stewed and froze a lot to use later.

Whenever I’ve made jam, I’ve totally wrecked my pan.

What on earth are you doing that costs £12 a jar?

Use your current pots and pans. Ideally you should have been saving jars all year but see if somebody on Freecycle has some to give away.

I have pureed apple (apple sauce) in the freezer, in ice-cube size portions.

You don’t need all the crap, find a simpler recipe and cheaper jars.

You need a pan, jars, sugar.

I 'inherited' a jam pan but prior to that used the pressure cooker pan. I guess if you don't have a big pan then yea you need to invest but would look on freecycle/Facebook market place rather than buy new.

Jars as PPs have said, save old jars

I've never used a jam thermometer. Suspect that might make it easier but I just use the old saucer in the freezer method to test for set.

Oh and I do use waxed discs but they aren't that expensive.

Apple sauce isn't jam. But it would help if you tell us what you think you need to buy to make it, because i make it all the time and it is literally apples, a bit of water, lemon juice and a bit of time and electricity.

We make all our own jam too and the cost there is that we buy the sugar (we use the 2:1 sugar making jam) and we're still chowing down on 2021's lot and haven't started on this year's. Jars are cheap or 2nd hand.

I'm intrigued by your costings, I make applesauce annually with the windfall apples everyone is desprate to get shot of. Admittedly, I freeze it flat in bags rather than putting it in jars, but still...

Don't forget that you can use apples to make mincemeat. That is expensive but so worth it. Homemade is in a totally different league to shop-bought.

I make rhubarb and ginger jam every year at least, the rhubarb is free from the garden, the sugar/pectin cost is about £5 tops, the jars are left over from previous jam purchases. I already have a pan big enough (use it for batch cooking bolognese/chilli con carne) so the only costs I can think of:

Sugar/Pectin
Water/bleach for sterilising jars
Gas for cooking the jam

Doesn't come to £12 EACH JAR thats for sure. I'd say the 1kg fruit:1kg sugar method yields about 6 jars of jam, and the cost is probably under £1 a jar. More than supermarket costs perhaps, but tastes loads nicer.

Apple sauce isn't jam.

No, but it is two words.

My mum used to make lots of preserves when I was little. No special equipment. Just lots of different jars saved rather than thrown out.

Btw, IMO the best place for jars is Hobbycraft. Currently £6 for 12 hexagonal ones, which are really pretty and IME last well.

Mind you, even if you buy those, plus a jam pan for £60 (which is about what mine cost), plus a thermometer for a tenner - which you don't need for apple sauce but do for jam - you're only at about £6 per jar before you get to ingredients. Maybe if you scrape in costs for sugar and spices and if you literally don't own a knife or chopping board you get to £12?

Applesauce in my house is simply stewed apples, little bit of water in the pot to get it started and that's it.

How is it costing you so much?

Just cook and freeze in ziploc bags (or in foodsaver bags if you have a food saver).

Is applesauce one word in the US? They seem to go crazy for it over there and I have a friend (who isn't prone to typos) who posts about feeding her baby 'applesauce' rather than 'apple sauce'.

Don’t know about jam, but applesauce I literally just put it in a pan on hob with a bit of water, lemon juice and spices for flavour (no sugar as I give some to my baby and my dog). Then freeze it, I’ve put it in some bags I got for storing expressed milk.

jam wise, my parents have always made jam. Once you have the big pan and all the bits then that’s gonna be a one time investment. Jars, just keep old sauce jars and collect off friends and neighbours. Wash and sterilise them in the oven. Only things you’d need to buy each time is lots of sugar and possibly pectin depending what flavour jam.

I should imagine the first year it would cost you if you don't have a heavy bottom pan or jars but as you say the costs go down as you save the jars over the years. A thermometer, jam funnel and jar tongs are not essential but they help in the process. I've got 57 jars of various preserves in the cupboard that I've made this year and I've spent about £5 on the sugar.

I've not actually bought anything yet. I've done the online equivalent of filling a trolley and then running àway, leaving it by the check out.

I also don't want to store a load of specialised, one purpose stuff.

I managed to get it that high by watching YouTube videos by amazing USA canning experts. The next thing is DH spots an apple press £65, then there's the crusher, another £65.
a big jam pan is £60, can tongs £10, thermometer £10, magnetic lid lifter thing....
The matchy, matchy empty Kilner jars work out at over £2 each.

I'm going outside to refile through the recycling bin for the pasta sauce jars...... (Would be wrong to have a sneaky peek in my neighbours?)