I made jam.

[PrettyCandles]

It was meant to be a little outing to the PYO farm with ds1 and dd, but we got carried away and picked far too much.

"Oh well," I said, "we'll just make a couple of jars of jam."

Fourteen jars later...

The strawberry jam is too sweet and hasn't set, and the jars haven't sealed themselves. 7 jars sitting in the fridge, waiting to be reboiled with more pectin.

The raspberry jam is too sour, and has set so hard you need a hammer and chisel to get at it.

Domestic goddess? Who, me?

Did you try adding a tbsp of butter per litre of jam? I find it works better than pectin.

Plus I have found the fruit hasn't been great this year, something to do with the weather, maybe.
You could always blame that

IIRC, the butter clarifies the jam so that you don't have to skim it. But I wanted the jam to be dairy-free.

Either the jam didn't set because bought pectin is pants, or maybe I just didn't boil it enough.

That's why I used home-made pectin for the raspberry jam.

Did you use enough sugar?

Yes, because the jam is far too sweet.

I mixed the last scraps of raspberry jam with some garlic puree and Tabasco, and it made a really scrummy relish for the meat at dinner. Something in between plum sauce and cranberry sauce, with a bit of added zing.

Just out of interest - how do you make home-made pectin?

Chop up sour apples whole, cores, peel and all - Bramleys or unripe garden apples are good - and simmer them in minimum water for 45mins or so. Mush and either strain (if you want clear jam with no apple taste) or seive (if you want to include the apple pulp in the jam). I can't remember the proportions exactly, which is probably why my raspberry jam set too firm, but I think it may be about 1 cup of apple liquid or pulp to 3-4lb of fruit. I chucked the lot in. About 8 cups. .

Oooh, thank you, that sounds wonderful. I shall have a go.

I made jam today too! fortunately for me it was a bit more successful

Google microwave jam

I did 1 lb plums 10 oz sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon juice - shove in the microwave for 15 mins and voila!