I want to make cookies. I need ginger jam. Couldn’t find any. Decided to make some.
Got all the supplies. Just boiled shredded fresh ginger for 75 minutes. Boiled ginger is cooling at the moment.
6 cups of water and 1.5 cups of ginger was supposed to come to a vigarous boil and then simmer for 75 minutes. Recipe says after cooling I’m supposed to measure it and have 3 cups. I have about 4.5 cups right now. I find it very hard to believe that it’s going to reduce by 1.5 cups just by cooling. Am I wrong?
After it cools I’m supposed to return it to the pot (and blend it first if I want smooth jam). I do plan to blend it first. After I blend it, if it’s not 3 cups, can I just measure out 3 cups or do I run the risk of screwing up the recipe some how?
The recipe calls for liquid pectin and I didn’t notice that before I did NOT buy liquid pectin. Is it acceptable to turn my powdered pectin to liquid or is this one of those deviate from the recipe and rue the day things?
When it’s back in the pot I have to add the other ingredients and then it says to either put in jars and can per canning instructions but the recipe doesn’t actually have canning instructions. Um…I wasn’t actually planning on doing the whole canning thing but the recipe says it makes 5-1/2 pint jars and I can’t bring myself to throw out all that extra because there’s no way I’ll eat it before it goes bad. So, how exactly does one know the proper canning instructions for a smooth ginger jam in 4 oz jars when the recipe doesn’t have any instructions?
Canning instructions are usually printed with the pectin package. For jam, you normally use waterbath canning, but I don’t know if ginger jam has enough acid to make that safe. I usually use recipes from Kraft’s Sure-Jell website.
And you may want to run back to the store and get liquid pectin. The one major fail I had in all my years of jam making was the one time I used the wrong pectin. My intended apricot jam ended up being apricot syrup.
The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of lemon juice. I’m assuming that’s for the acid content. Unfortunately going back to the store for liquid pectin requires waiting until tomorrow or driving 35 minutes to the nearest 24 hour supermarket.
I actually haven’t even looked at the pectin yet. I assumed it’d be like gelatin so I didn’t even question the powdered form when I found it.
So the jam has not set and even though my reading says it can take 24-48 hours, I’m fairly confident that it wont set. I’m also fairly confident that I know where I went wrong and I don’t think the pectin was to blame.
I think the fact that I ended up with nearly 2x the liquid I was supposed to have is a pretty good indicator that I didn’t do my boiling properly because not enough water boiled off. According to one canning blogger, I can try boiling it again and adding more pectin to make up for the extra water. I was going to try this.
While driving home from school today I started to get a bit nauseated (this is fairly normal for me; my stomach hates me). I thought that a nice cup of ginger tea would help. That’s when it occurred to me that I accidentally made a tea flavoring/sweetener!! I tried it as soon as I got home from work and sure enough, 2 tablespoons of my failed jam made my (huge) cup of boring black tea into sweet and spicy ginger tea!!
So I’m very happy and have no intention of trying to “save” my 40 oz of “failed” jam and in fact a couple people have requested that I mail them a jar too.
Only problem now is that I still need ginger jam so I can make the gingeriest ginger cookies ever. :smack:
Boiling time should go by volume, not a timer. Evaporation rate will depend on a whole lot of things, including the weather and the shape of your pot. So if it says to reduce to 3 cups, boil until it’s reduced to three cups. Ignore the clock.
Pectin is some sort of magic potion. Do not try to understand it. Do not attempt to replace it. Just obey.
If you don’t want to/have the equipment for/can’t be bothered with the waterbath canning stuff, freezer jam is a perfectly acceptable alternative. Assuming you have sufficient freezer space.
It is very important to the jelling process that the right amounts of sugar, acid and pectin be used. Too little pectin and the thing won’t jell, to much and it can get pretty hard (I know.)
Usually you will have a little more of the fruit (or ginger in this case) mixture than you need - recipes overshoot because they don’t want to undershoot. So I would just dip out the 3 cups.
If the recipe calls for liquid pectin, you probably need to use that or the quantities will be off and the jelly won’t jell. But, if you only want the sugary, gingery liquid for cooking, maybe you don’t need to jell at all?
I definitely think the boiling was the issue. I just asked my mother-in-law about the reduce to simmer comment and she explained that I reduced the temperature too much the first time. I’m trying again now. I absolutely will not stop simmering it until I have 3 cups.
I do have plenty of freezer space but I also have the nice old fashioned supplies for the waterbath (a really big pot, a stove, water, tongs). My first attempt at the waterbath turned out to be a total success so I’ll just stick with that.
I really don’t want to buy liquid pectin until I get my boiling issue fixed because I have so much powder now (I bought a jar). If I get it boiled down to 3 cups and it still doesn’t set with the powder, I’ll get the liquid. I’m pretty sure I can make the cookies with the syrup but now it’s personal and I’m going to make jam dammit!! Actually, I’m having fun. I can see me really liking this. It’s like chemistry.
Using the correct temperature really makes a difference. This time around I had 3 cups after only 45 minutes of simmering. When I was doing the final 5 minutes of stirring before putting them in the jars, the liquid was definitely more viscous than it was last time. They’re all done now. I love taking them out of the water bath and hearing them start popping immediately. It’s so satisfying.
Now comes the waiting and I suck at that.
However, while the ginger and water concoction was simmering, I did make the cookies and they’re stupendous!
Here’s the recipe if anyone is interested.
