Seems to me, in the olden days, jam and jelly recipes gave fruit measurements by weight. And it seemed to me to be a more accurate way to control the measurements. Now, either the side of the package of low sugar pectin that I have, or the online recipes I find, all give volume in cups. And I really want the better accuracy. So can the SDMB help me?
A few canning cookbooks do still give measurements in weight. The one that comes to mind offhand is Paul Virant’s Preservation Kitchen, which offers both ounces and grams, in addition to the more common volume measurements. My other canning cookbooks are currently packed up, but off my Kindle, Put 'Em Up! Fruit (Sherri Vinton Brooks) does not use weight, and Food in Jars (Marisa McClellan) does use weight (in grams) in addition to volume.
Thanks. It seems like I now have some authors to work with, and see if their other books also have jam recipes by weight. I would have thought that, in days past, weight was a more common measure. Maybe I can check the library for older books.
Aren’t nearly all jams 50-50 sugar and fruit? Maybe 40-60 for the naturally sweeter fruits?
This is one place where the not-always-offered “look inside this book” feature on Amazon listings may help. Most cookbooks that have this will let you look at a few recipes, so search for interesting canning/preserves cookbooks and then see if you can get a look at the recipe format for interesting ones.
Recently, I saw one of the compendium volumes by Cook’s Country – you know, those cooking magazines edit by Cris Kimble, PBS show as well. I thought, do they use weight, and sure enough they do. I will have to search for more recipe compendiums by them. I’ll find the recipe I need.