Sunday 3 August 2014

Jam... The morning after

So last night I set myself to making blackberry jam. Looking at various recipes the general consensus was same weight of sugar to weight of fruit plus something with pectin e.g. lemon juice. With 5.5lbs of fruit, that's a lot of sugar. Earlier in the day we'd gone in to town to get our regular shopping (we take a trolley when have to get heavy things and I wanted soya milks). Just as well we had the trolley to carry all that sugar! I hadn't weighed the fruit at that point so wasn't sure how much I needed, I picked up three small bags and asked if there were anymore (this is in the Greenhouse, an excellent veggie and fairtrade cafe, shop, secondhand book shop that we go to a lot.) Tigger (yes that is his name) suggested one of the big 3 kg bags as it works out cheaper. Here it is:


I thought, well that'll keep us going a long time....wrongo! Here's what was left:


Here's the empty boxes from the fruit:


Here's the mess (you can't quite see all the fruit splats everywhere):



And finally, here's the finished jam...12 jars! I had a bit of bother with this though. I thought I'd try just adding red currants to the blackberries as red currants are high in pectin (blackberries are low in pectin) but after what seemed like hours the jam still wasn't setting (using the old 'saucer in the fridge trick' for checking). So I then started adding lemon juice and eventually after several doses it started to set. By this point it had also turned very dark and the fruit had broken up. It has a Very intense flavour too. Anyway here it is, probably not one of my best, I think I do jellies better. I suspect I may have now overdone the set too and it'll end up rock hard.....we'll see!




4 comments:

  1. We make compote which we then freeze ti avoid adding so much sugar. Once thawed you can add it to porridge,or yoghurt etc.

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  2. Kitchen mess does produce good food at the end :0 ) I agree lots of sugar, but look at what you have produced - jars of yumminess. I have lost my growing mojo, my green fingers. I am hoping next year will be better for me.

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  3. Kitchen mess does produce good food at the end :0 ) I agree lots of sugar, but look at what you have produced - jars of yumminess. I have lost my growing mojo, my green fingers. I am hoping next year will be better for me.

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  4. Thanks Sue, yes funnily enoug I just made some tonight from blackberries picked today and gooseberries from the freezer plus some old preserve as a sweetener. My problem at the mo is no freezer space, but we'll be getting a bigger freezer soon hopefully!

    Well hopefully tasty anyway Shaheen especially as I'll probably be giving most of it away! It's the washing up that gets me though. Yes hopefully next year will be good for you. Not sure if it's the weather or what but this year is good for me, though having said that, not everything has done so well. Been too hot and dry (aside from storms) for a second sowing of salad leaves for example.

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