I think the difference is that i used slightly more sugar. Last year, i got four cups of juice without adding any water, and used 3 cups of sugar. (The joy of cooking suggests ¾-1 cup of sugar per cup of juice.) This year, i had slightly less fruit, and added a little water when i extracted the juice. And i rinsed the cooking pot with a little water, as well. I got 4 cups of slightly diluted juice, and still added 3 cups of sugar. So i think the ratio of sugar to pectin was slightly higher.
But I’m not certain.
I’m getting ready to go out and buy a buttload of cherries so I can make my favorite jam - sour cherry almond. I’m reviewing recipes and come across one which states something surprising to me: instead of processing the filled jars in a hot water bath, you can put them all in the oven at 212 degrees for two hours. She claims it’s as safe as doing the hot water bath. This would be a great method for me, as my largest pot is a tight fit for five or six one-cup jars. It’d be way easier to just pop them into the oven on a baking sheet. I think I’ll try it.
I wouldn’t. I’ve read several times that because it’s impossible to ensure the jars all reach the correct internal temperature in an oven, there’s no guarantee the end product will be safe. Lots of people do this, but there are a lot of unsafe canning practices out there.
Confession time: When I make jam, I sterlise the empty jars upside down on a metal tray in the oven. I sterilise the lids and jam funnel in a jug of boiling water with a couple of drops of sterilising fluid (Milton - the stuff used for sterilising baby bottles - it’s basically pure hypochlorite bleach).
When the jam is ready, I put on some heatproof gloves and, one at a time, fill the hot jars with the still-boiling jam, then cap them immediately with a lid that I just take out of the sterilising bath and shake dry.
I’ve been doing this for years and I’ve never had any problems with spoilage; the whole setup is hot enough at the point of sealing up the jars that any stray spores or bacteria that might float in as I am working, are (I infer from my results) killed off.
I sterilize both the jars and the lids in boiling water, but i take them out before the jam is done, and leave them upside down. I fill the jars with still-boiling jam.
Because jam keeps safely in the fridge after you open the bottle, for, about forever, i feel this is good enough. If i were canning anything that isn’t both highly acidic and extremely sweet, i would worry more about canning safety. But jam is not a good medium for botulism.
I’ve never had a problem with mold, but mold is just an “oh shoot, this bottle went bad”, problem, not an “i might kill someone” problem. So I’m satisfied with my success rate. (I’ve never had a bottle mold.)
Also, i believe you need to use a pressure cooker to get temperatures high enough to kill botulism spores. (It maybe an oven.) A quick Google search says 240°F. So if i were canning anything that might grow botulism, i wouldn’t depend on anything that only got to the boiling temp of water.
The problem with ovens is that home ovens aren’t very consistent. That’s fine for sterilization, where you can just set it a little hotter than the temperature you need, so even if it goes lower, it’s still in the acceptable range. But canning jam requires a more stable temperature, which is most easily achieved by the water bath.
True. And agreed about jam not being a vehicle for botulism, or anything else that it sufficiently acidic or sweet.
I don’t personally like to risk my canning efforts to mold, but everyone’s tolerances for these things are different.
Say, @teelabrown, would you kindly share your recipe? A friend of mine just gave me 10 pounds of cherries from her very prolific tree, and I’d love to try a batch of your jam now that I have a new thermometer. I’d be most grateful!
Sure.
3 and 3/4 cups of pitted, chopped cherries
6 and 1/4 cups of sugar
1/4 cup of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of butter
2 envelopes liquid pectin (I like to subtract 1/3 of one envelope, as I like softer jam)
1 teaspoon of almond extract
Prepare seven one-cup canning jars, lids and rings according to instructions. Also sterilize a canning funnel and a ladle.
Put the chopped fruit, sugar, lemon juice, and butter into a heavy, big saucepan, and bring it to a rolling boil that you can’t stir down. Add the pectin, and once it returns to a full boil, boil and stir it for exactly one minute. Turn off heat, and skim the foam off the top for a minute. Add the almond extract.
Ladle the hot liquid jam into the jars using a canning funnel, filling the jars to 1/4 inch from the top. Dip a paper towel into the hot canning water and wipe the rims of the jars. Put the lids and rings on the jars and process them in a boiling hot water bath for 10 minutes. Tighten the lids a bit more as soon as they come out of the canning water.
This recipe makes a little more than will fit in seven one-cup jars, but any extra jam can go into a rubbermaid container in the fridge and be the jam that you use first.
Thank you! I’ll let you know how it turns out. I’m sure it will be splendid. I do have to grab some pectin. I’ve never used it before, but I don’t think cherries have any natural pectin so I can see the need.
That sounds delicious. Do you use sweet cherries or sour cherries?
It’s also an enormous recipe. I usually end up with about 4 cups of juice, and that ends up making about 5 cups of jelly. I boil it in a 3qt pot with a handle. So i don’t need to sterilize a ladle or a funnel, i just pour the boiling jelly directly out of the pot into the bottles.
(I actually have a jelly funnel. I’m trying to remember why i bought it and what I’ve used it for. I feel like i do use it from time to time. But not for jelly.)
I think in an earlier post she said she uses sour cherries.
Nope, just plain old bings. The sourness in this recipe comes from the lemon juice.
I made the recipe and the jars are sitting out ready for me to label them. I used 1 and 3/4 pouches of pectin, and I think I could have used even a little less, as the jam is somewhat stiff.
My cherry pitter is acting wonky. It left pits in about 1/4 of the cherries and I had to keep picking pits out during the cooking process.
As I detailed in the MMP, I caved and bought an actual canning pot with a fitted rack inside. I also bought a jar-lifter.
In the next couple of days I’ll buy a buttload of blackberries from a local farm stand and make my final batch of jam for the summer. Last year’s blackberry jam turned out beautifully and I hope this year’s will as well. I posted that my favorite jam was sour cherry almond, but sometimes I think that blackberry might be.
I find blackberry jam a little seedy, but i adore the flavor of good blackberry jam.
I’ve never had anything like enough blackberries to make my own. But there’s a place in the tourist district of Seattle that makes something like 20 varieties (all using different blackberries) and tasting them side by side is a lot of fun.
Huh, they also sell online. That’s not as much fun, but i liked their jams. I might consider it. They even have seedless versions of two of the best blackberries. (Tayberry and Marionberry. And yes, they say that the Tayberry has some raspberry genetics. That just makes it taste like a really good blackberry.)
The recipe I used last year had me pressing the blackberries through a sieve to remove most of the seeds. I left a few in, but it was 4/5 de-seeded. The sieving sure made a big mess, though.
I bet! Was it worth it? Will you do that again this year?
Also, I reiterate, blackberry jam rocks.
Yep and yep. I can’t wait to try out my new canner.
2 quarts of blackberries have been pushed through a sieve to make 4 cups of seedless blackberry pulp. The giant new canner has ample room for 7 half pint jars, rings, funnel, and ladle, and will give the jars a good 2 inches of room for boiling water above them. Everything’s ready to go and as soon as I’m done resting up from sieving the fruit, I’ll be making a big batch of fresh blackberry jam. Yummy!