All Fruit Jam Recipes

ALL FRUIT JAM

Steps:

• Sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup apple-juice concentrate and set aside. Combine 1/2 cup cherry juice concentrate, strawberries, and lemon juice in heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add softened gelatin mixture, stirring constantly until gelatin is completely dissolved. Cool at room temperature. Store in refrigerator. Makes approximately 6 cups. *This is an excellent sweetener for diabetics and individuals who are highly resistant to fat loss to use in hot cereals and on toast, pancakes, waffles, etc. Apple-Raspberry Butter is also excellent. Jam Variations· Dole Orchard Peach juice frozen concentrate with pureéd peaches.· Dole Country Raspberry juice frozen concentrate with mashed raspberries· Dole Pine-Orange-Banana juice frozen concentrate with mashed or pureéd pineapple, oranges, and ripe bananas.· white-grape juice frozen concentrate with mashed boysenberries or blackberries· pineapple and apple-juice frozen concentrates (equal parts of each) with mashed blueberries and whole small blueberries **Special Note: Make certain that all of the frozen juice concentrates are free of sugar and artificial sweeteners.

ANY FRUIT JAM

Steps:

• Put 1 pound fruit (pitted and chopped if necessary) in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
• After a minute or so, add 1/4 cup sugar (or to taste), seasonings to taste and 2 tablespoons juice, vinegar or whatever liquid you prefer.
• Adjust the heat so the mixture bubbles steadily, using higher heat if the mixture looks too soupy; lower the heat if it seems dry. Cook, stirring occasionally until the mixture is thick - 10 to 30 minutes. Cool completely and refrigerate; it will thicken more as it cools.
• Store in the refrigerator, where it will keep for at least a week. If necessary, remove any seasonings (like lemon-grass stalks) before serving.

BASIC JAM

Steps:

• Stir together fruit, sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved and mashing fruit with a potato masher. Add lemon juice; continue to boil, stirring frequently, until bubbles slow, chunks of fruit show at top, and mixture clings to a spoon but falls off in clumps, 10 to 12 minutes. Skim foam from top.
• Ladle jam into clean containers, leaving 3/4 inch of headroom. Let cool completely. Cover, label, and refrigerate up to 1 month, or freeze up to 1 year.

QUICK FRUIT JAM FOR ALL SEASONS

Steps:

• Place the fruit, sugar, lemon juice, and salt in a large pot and stir to mix. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly until the fruit starts to release juice and the sugar dissolves, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the butter and stir to mix.
• Turn the heat to low and simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, skimming the foam as needed, until the jam thickens slightly (it will still be fairly loose) and reaches the setting point (see Know-how, page 304).
• If preserving the jam, sterilize three 1-pint heat-tempered canning jars (see Know-how, page 291).
• For refrigerator jam, let cool slightly and refrigerate in airtight containers until ready to serve, or for up to 1 month.
• For preserved jam, pack the hot fruit in the sterilized jars and seal using the hot-pack method (see Know-how, page 291). Let cool to room temperature, check the seal, and store in a cool, dark place until ready to serve, or for up to 6 months. Refrigerate after opening.
• The following are some of my favorite seasonal combinations.
• Spring: Strawberry and rhubarb
• Summer: Mixed berry (any combination of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, and strawberries), peach
• Fall: Plum, pear, or apple
• Winter: Pumpkin marmalade, orange or tangerine marmalade
• A little bit of butter is often added to berry jams, but not for the reason you might expect. More than adding a hint of richness, the butter helps keep the jam from foaming, thus reducing the need to skim the jam as it cooks.
• I love the straightforward taste of simple fruit jam, but when I'm feeling more adventurous I like to play off of the fruits' sweetness by adding less run-of-the-mill seasonings. A 1/4-cup splash of balsamic vinegar deepens the flavor of strawberry or mixed berry jam, while a sprig or two of fresh thyme or rosemary imparts an elegant grassy end note to blackberry or plum jam. Jams like these have complex flavor profiles that make them better suited for cheese and crackers than PB&Js.
• More than just sweetening the pot, the sugar in jams helps preserve the fruit and enables the mixture to set up properly. Therefore, it is important to maintain a recipe's ratio of sugar to fruit if you want the finished jam to have the recipe's intended consistency. (Of course, if you are more interested in flavor than texture, by all means reduce the sugar to taste; the jam will just be a bit runnier.) Another way to get nice, thick preserves with less sugar is to use fruit pectin of some kind, which, like the sugar, also causes the preserves to set, but without adding any sweet flavor. If enough pectin is present, the sugar can be reduced to taste. Apples, pears, and quinces are good sources of natural pectin, but if you want to take a more precise approach or avoid introducing those flavors, you can use store-bought natural pectin, such as the Pomona brand. This fruit-derived powdered pectin is added to the fruit while it cooks, allowing you to reduce the amount of sugar.

SUMMER FRUITS JAM

Steps:

• Briefly blend the fruit and place in a large microwave-proof bowl with the sugar. Microwave on High for 3 mins, then stir well. Microwave for a further 3 mins on High, stirring after. Finish with a further 2 mins, then pour into warm sterilised jars. Once bottled and cool the jam is ready to eat. Will keep in a cool, dark place for up to 6 months. Keep in the fridge once opened.