# "Short-cut" recipes for 'home-made' jam/jelly? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 5, 2006, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-cut-recipes-for-home-made-jam-jelly/382887 "2006-12-05T00:41:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-cut-recipes-for-home-made-jam-jelly/382887/1 "2006-12-05T00:41:19Z")
Long ago my mother used to make some ‘home-made’ jelly/jam that started from some pre-processed fruit substance (maybe even jam or jelly) which you added a few additional ingredients and voila! ‘home made’ jelly. I only have fragmentary memories of this (and can’t ask Mom, she doesn’t remember much.) Some bits I retain: One recipe was definitely called “three fruit” jam. One recipe started from canned apple pie filling. One (I’m pretty sure) involved melting grape jelly and adding …something…and then pouring the mass into jelly jars and letting it resolidify. I don’t think any of these jellies were processed, or even sealed with parafin. They had to be kept refrigerated and used up in a couple of weeks. Is any of this ringing bells with anyone? I’ve tried googling without much luck, but there are an awful lot of potential words. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-cut-recipes-for-home-made-jam-jelly/382887/2 "2006-12-05T00:43:21Z")
Oh, I should say: yes, I know making jam from fresh ripe fruit is a zillion times better. I’ve done that a lot. But right now is the wrong time to buy good quality fruit, so I’m looking for a way to get something approximating home made. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-cut-recipes-for-home-made-jam-jelly/382887/3 "2006-12-05T05:10:52Z")
I’ve never heard of what you’re talking about. That being said, if you’re willing to go to that effort, is there any particular reason why you couldn’t buy frozen fruit as the base ingredient, or just spring for higher-quality commercial products? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-cut-recipes-for-home-made-jam-jelly/382887/4 "2006-12-05T14:55:51Z")
I’ve made preserves with frozen fruit before - in fact, you can’t make bluebarb jam without either frozen blueberries or frozen rhubarb. I mean, it’s not like picking the strawberries that day, I guess, but you can make perfectly good stuff out of the freezer section. Never heard of anything like that for jams, though - sounds like what my mom used to put jarred spaghetti sauce through. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-cut-recipes-for-home-made-jam-jelly/382887/5 "2006-12-05T14:58:15Z")
It’s probably not the same thing but do a search on recipes freezer jam and you’ll find one of the shortcuts to making jam. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-cut-recipes-for-home-made-jam-jelly/382887/6 "2006-12-05T18:36:16Z")
Funny you should ask - I saw something just like this in the grocery store the other day. Sadly, though, I didn’t catch the brand name, but it’s exactly like you’re suggesting - it’s some substance to which you add fruits (and water, maybe?) and then let set into jelly. It was in the trash bag/ziploc/paper aisle at my grocery store. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-cut-recipes-for-home-made-jam-jelly/382887/7 "2006-12-05T19:17:26Z")
[QUOTE=Snickers] Funny you should ask - I saw something just like this in the grocery store the other day. Sadly, though, I didn’t catch the brand name, but it’s exactly like you’re suggesting - it’s some substance to which you add fruits (and water, maybe?) and then let set into jelly. It was in the trash bag/ziploc/paper aisle at my grocery store. [/QUOTE] [Sure-Jell](http://www.kraftfoods.com/surejell/sj_index.html). Pectin, with some added sugars. Years ago when I had the time/energy to pick strawberries in the spring I would make a few batches of freezer jam using the instructions in the Sure-Jell package. Basically, cut up / mash berries, add SJ and sugar, maybe there was a heating step; pour into small containers, and store in fridge for use within a week or two, or in freezer. The flavor was so much “brighter” than store-bought strawberry jam. The package insert also, IIRC, contains instructions on how to make jam/jelly the “old-fashioned” way (with boiling, pouring into jars, storable at room temp). Though obviously not the “really old-fashioned way” which involved boiling the fruit for ages until its natural pectin developed, and which was, I gather, less reliable than using packaged pectin. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-cut-recipes-for-home-made-jam-jelly/382887/8 "2006-12-05T22:45:01Z")
[QUOTE=Mama Zappa] The package insert also, IIRC, contains instructions on how to make jam/jelly the “old-fashioned” way (with boiling, pouring into jars, storable at room temp). Though obviously not the “really old-fashioned way” which involved boiling the fruit for ages until its natural pectin developed, and which was, I gather, less reliable than using packaged pectin. [/QUOTE] Sometimes they used pectin from apples, also.