| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Ga Girl |
Posted - Jun 29 2008 : 12:41:15 PM
thickin what do I need to do? Karen
Create in me a pure heart,O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalms 51:10 http://farmgirlingastyle.blogspot.com/ |
| 13 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Ga Girl |
Posted - Jun 30 2008 : 6:25:04 PM
Sarah and Sage, thank you thank you thank you, This is alot of great info. I will read and reread so I can make sure I get it through my thick head. Thanks again, Karen
Create in me a pure heart,O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalms 51:10 http://farmgirlingastyle.blogspot.com/ |
| Sagewood |
Posted - Jun 30 2008 : 2:28:58 PM
Hey gals..sorry I didn't get back to this sooner, but was out and about with the hubby today.
No, you can't reuse the seals, but the rings of course you can. Just get you some extra seals, they sell them just about everywhere. Look in the grocery store near the picnic items or in walmart near the kitchen supplies (not in the food section)
Like Sarah said, the drier fruits are the easiest to make butters with. (I do very few of those but getting ready to do some pumpkin!)
You really do have to cook them down (easiest without the sugar) to reduce the water content, then measure the sugar to fruit 'pulp' ratio.
I guess you could say I make jams in a very old fashioned, the way my mother did. She had me helping her make jams and jellies as soon as I was big enough to stand on the stool to stir! And she learned from her mother. LOL..so here's how she did it, and how I do it today. Is it like the cookbooks say? No. It's not, but it's worked for this family and the family before us for many many moons.
For jams....I use the same basics for each type of fruit, except those that are high in juice will usually take longer to cook down a bit.
I only do 8 cups of fruit at a time, so measure out 8 cups of fruit. (sliced for strawberries or apples, or whole for stuff like blueberries or blackberries)
To 8 cups of fruit, I use 5-6 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup of lemon juice. I don't use pectin.
Once the fruit comes to a boil, I'll use the potato masher and squish them just a bit, here and there, depending on how large a pieces I want.
As the fruit and sugar cooks, it will produce a foam on the top. You have two options here. The way I do it is once it starts to foam, I add...2-3 tablespoons of pure butter, salt or no is up to you. Salt is a flavor inhancer, so I use the salted butter. This will make the foam go away and the jam take on a clearer more rich texture. You won't find that addition in any book. It was the secret ingredient my mom used. OR you can skim off the foam and not use the butter.
Get your jars ready. I have a tendency to use 1/2 pints for fruit jams, that way I'm not stuck with one flavor for too long, and can switch quickly. :)
Once the fruit and sugar comes to a boil that you can't stir down, keep an eye on it and the clock. (Don't do this on a high heat, a medium heat is always best, it'll keep it from splattering up on you and wont be so quick to scorch). I usually cook the fruit mix for about 45 minutes. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But I start checking via the back of a spoon at about 30 minutes, then every 5 minutes or so till I see it starting to sheet. Once it thickens enough to sheet, I remove the pan from the heat and using a measuring cup with a long handle, ladle it into the jars, leaving about 1/2 inch of space at the top. Wipe off each jar rim and put the lid on. Then I turn the jars over.
Once all the jars are full and the mess is pretty much taken care of, I turn the jars back over (right side up) and seperate them a bit to cool faster. Then listen for that sweet sound of 'pop' 'pop' as each jar seals. So far, I've never had any preserves go bad. Some are thicker then others depending on the fruit used and the cooking length.
The sugar to fruit ratio I use is almos always the same 8 Cups of fruit, to 5-6 Cups of sugar..it's not so much a perfect ration, just 2 less the the amount of fruit I'm using. Most recipes call for 1 to 1. I don't care for that much sugar.
If you want to make your own pectin, you can. Apple peels and grapefruit seeds will make pectin for ya. Do a search on making your own pectin, 'pip pectin' or using 'pip's and you may find a way to make your own pectin.
Squash is easier to freeze, unless you've got a pressure canner. Most veggies except tomato's will take a pressure canner to preserve as they don't have enough natural pH or acid.
Hope this helps with some canning virgins! LOL..it's really not that hard and like someone else said earlier, it's a matter of practice and years of experience! (egads..don't make me remember how old I am!)
Sage,
The Hedgewife
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| Sarahpauline |
Posted - Jun 30 2008 : 11:37:04 AM
First of all, plum butter isnt the easiest thing in the world to make. Most butters are made by boiling the juice off a fairly dry fruit (comparitively)if you are planning to put the jam on the jars you should see if it sheets off a spoon and also test to see if a few tablespoons set up firmly in the freezer after a few minutes. That way you can test the sugar content, flavor (you may need to add salt or acid) and texture of the jams before you put it on the jars. This saves you lots of lids! If you are going to make pectin free preserves (like many butters)its easier to use a drier fruit like apples or pumpkin or use a whole lot of sugar and boil the heck out of it. Jam is one of those things that you either have to follow a recipe to the letter or really practice at. I use pectin always for strawberry, cherry and many others and I still have flops after making jams every year for the past 20 years. You can always use a flop on flapjacks. :) Also, apples have a lot of natural pectin. And dont overlook adding dried fruit to the batch if you make low sugar pectin free jams. What you get is more of a thick preserve and less gelatinous, it looks like a chutney but isnt savory. If you want a clear jelly pectin makes it much easier. For example if I had a loose plum butter I would add some ground prunes but I dont ever take anything back out of the jars. If my plum jam or butter didnt set I would just use it on pancakes or cereal or as a glaze for a spice cake or as part of the oil and sugar for a spice cake.
One time I canned a batch of 40 QUARTS of baked beans for convenience over the winter. All the jars sealed but I must not have processed them long enough because about a week later there was a heinous odor wafting up from the cupboard and slimey bean goo was all over... It was heartbreaking. Now I process everything a few minutes longer than the recipe says to keep that from happening again, and it hasnt happened since, thankfully!
Not all those who wander are lost...
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www.AbraxasBaroque.com |
| ruralfarmgirl |
Posted - Jun 30 2008 : 06:44:51 AM
Arent hubby's awesome.. no matter what my flop is. .mine will put it on ice cream.. gotta love that.. although tech. I dont think yours was a flop.. sounds like it may have set up in time...but...
Rene~Prosser Farmgirl #185
" Plant goodness, harvest the fruit of loyalty, plow the new ground of knowledge. Hosea 10:12 |
| Ga Girl |
Posted - Jun 30 2008 : 05:08:35 AM
Ok thanks for all the great advice. My granny sent me a pack of sure-gel and I added that to the syrup. I cooked about another hour and still juice. I guess Ill do like Sage says use it on cake or biscuits. My hubby even mixed it with pnut butter and ate it on a sandwich. He loves it. I did put cinnamon in it as well. Oh I tried the cool plate and it did not liquid around edge. Maybe mine will do like Amy's and firm later. Who knows. Its my first batch so Next time Ill do better. Sage,you said the 1/2 cup sugar to every cup of fruit. That is for the butter right? ok if I make jelly whats the ratio for sugar to fruit? Oh I have so many questions. Can the seals be reused? I have alot of squash and have been freezing it but would love to can it what or how do I do that? Thanks again for all you help, Karen
Create in me a pure heart,O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalms 51:10 http://farmgirlingastyle.blogspot.com/ |
| Sagewood |
Posted - Jun 30 2008 : 02:45:44 AM
Hey there Ga Girl! (sounds like a song doesn't it? LOL) Ok..the only thing I see 'off' is not enough sugar. For 22 Cups of fruit, you'd have needed A LOT more sugar (for 22 Cups you'd need about 15-18 Cups of sugar, even using the pectin)
**KEY NOTE HERE: You may be doing this batch in TOO BIG of a batch, and for some reason, it doesnt work as well. Once you get everything measured, split it in 1/2 before cooking. Too big of a pot wont jell near as good if ever as doing smaller batches.
..TWENTY TWO CUPS OF FRUIT?? WOWSA!....is that a typo? LOL.., for 22 Cups of fruit, using no pectin (which I don't use) you will need to add (and I'm counting the 4 you've already put in)..about 8 C of sugar for it to jell..I hate that you'll have to waste the seals again, but unseal them..pour them out ..and measure how much you have. If you have..10-12 cups total, add 6 C sugar ..if you have more then 12 C of fruit, add one cup of sugar for every 2 more Cups of fruit (for every cup of fruit= 1/2 C of sugar, this is kinda the basic I use for jams and butters)..cook for another ohhh 45 minutes to an hour. Remember to use fresh seals...and re-seal. 'Butters' are thinner then jam so I've tried to remember that when calculated the amount of sugar for a butter using 22 C of fruit.
The easiest way I've found to test if it's thickening, is to use the back of a spoon. With a cool spoon, dip it into your jam, lift it out and if it runs off the back of the spoon in a more 'sheeted' pattern, not drops, it's ready.
If it hasn't started thickening in that time, it's not going to..and you'll have plum sauce! Take heart, it's good too! Reseal it anyway and use it over icecream, cake, sweet biscuits anything you like!
Key note here, this is the way I would do it, not everyone is the same, some will use more sugar, some may use less..this is just how I'd fix the problem.
Did you add any spices? For a plum butter you can add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and/or allspice if you'd like, makes it really good.
GOOD LUCK and let us know!
Sage,
The Hedgewife
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| ruralfarmgirl |
Posted - Jun 29 2008 : 9:19:38 PM
Karen,
Do you have MJ's Idea book? On page 138 she has a test... she said while it is still "warm pour 1 TBS of the mixture onto a chilled plate if no liquid forms around the edge it is ready for canning"....so, my understanding of that would be that Amy is right, it will take a while to set up. Not sure if that helps any!
Rene~Prosser Farmgirl #185
" Plant goodness, harvest the fruit of loyalty, plow the new ground of knowledge. Hosea 10:12 |
| graciegreeneyes |
Posted - Jun 29 2008 : 5:39:02 PM
Karen,
I know this sounds weird but sometimes it needs a looong time to set up. I made some cherry jam two years ago and after four days of picking up the jars and tilting them every day I gave up on them being jam and decided they were syrup.....Six months later when I went to the cellar to gather up the jam and relish for christmas I discovered that they had magically turned to jam - go figure. My mother-in-law told me that happens sometimes
Amy Grace
Farmgirl #224
"use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" |
| electricdunce |
Posted - Jun 29 2008 : 4:56:28 PM
You might want to get some pectin at the store and add that to it. It's always harrowing to have to empty all the jars in the pot, but because you use such a small amount of sugar you probably need some pectin, a lot actually. Maybe the liquid pectin would work better than the dry. I always make plum jam but there['s lots more sugar in my recipe so I've never needed pectin. But I have sure had times when I've had to dump the jam out and doctor it up. Don't lose heart. Usually things some right in the end, or you may just end up with delicious plum sauce....
Karin
Farmgirl Sister #153
"Give me shelter from the storm" - Bob Dylan
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| Ga Girl |
Posted - Jun 29 2008 : 4:13:47 PM
Sage, I used 22cups of fruit to 3 1/2 cups sugar. Let it cook about 2 hrs. All jars did seal.
Then after cooling and not firmed I poured it all back in pan today and cooked about another hour and added another cup and 1/2 of sugar. It was kind of bitter yesterday. but after adding more sugar today it taste really good. It has not cooled completely again but so far still not firm more like juice.(thick juice). Thanks so much for the help. Karen
Create in me a pure heart,O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalms 51:10 http://farmgirlingastyle.blogspot.com/ |
| Sagewood |
Posted - Jun 29 2008 : 3:24:50 PM
How long did you let it cook?? Maybe it needs more sugar?
So let's start there..how much sugar to fruit did you use?
And did any of the jars seal??
All is not lost yet, don't give up. We'll work on it.
Sage,
The Hedgewife
Are you a Hedgewife?
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| Ga Girl |
Posted - Jun 29 2008 : 12:51:15 PM
Yes it cooled all nite and its still just as runny as when I started cooking it yesterday. Its my first time trying to can anything but all you farmgirls give me so much inspiration! Karen
Create in me a pure heart,O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalms 51:10 http://farmgirlingastyle.blogspot.com/ |
| ruralfarmgirl |
Posted - Jun 29 2008 : 12:45:38 PM
did you let it cool, Karen? Sometimes it kicks in late!
Funny, I just posted on trying to find some cherry plum recipes... my cherry plums are about ready to harvest and I want to make jam, but dont like to use white sugar or artificial sweetners.. what do you think?
Rene~Prosser Farmgirl #185
" Plant goodness, harvest the fruit of loyalty, plow the new ground of knowledge. Hosea 10:12 |
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