Making your own jam?

I was curious about how jam is made and found out that it's actually much simpler than I ever thought, at least according to several youtube videos I checked out.
I made strawberry jam and it worked out quite well, simple recipe macerate strawberries overnight with sugar then cook them for half an hour before putting them in a jar.
The final mix is a bit more liquid then it should because I added some water to the mix when I put it to cook.
So now I am thinking about trying it with other fruits as well, do you guys make your own jams, if so do you have any tips, recipes to share?

 

I think pectin is the big thing. If only strawberry you probably need to add some. Or add some berries that are naturally high in pectin, such as blueberries. I picked up a plat of blueberries last week and banged out a nice batch of blueberry jam. All it took was dumping two containers and some sugar into a sauce pan. cooked it for 20-30 minutes. Came out nice and thick. And since it was for eating over the next couple of weeks and not for canning I was able to use a LOT less sugar so the resulting jam tastes a lot more like blueberries than sugar.

Peaches have been pretty poor so far this year around here, but we're hoping to finally get some good ones this weekend and hope to make some peach jam. Not sure what is readily available this time of year where you live other than strawberries, but blueberries, blackberries and raspberries are great for jams -- either alone or mixed.

 

Thanks for the tips! I'll try a strawberry/blueberry mix next.
The recipe I followed asked for two third of the fruits mass in sugar.
If I understand correctly, the less sugar you put, the quicker you need to eat it, correct?
How much sugar for fruit did you use in the jam you made?

 

Correct. I put only about a half cup of sugar in with 2 pints of blueberries. Probably could have used another 1/4 cup or so for my tastes, but the wife and baby liked it. The sugar ratio you cite is pretty normal if you are canning it and need longer-term storage. We did that a couple years ago with a bushel of peaches. Sadly the resulting jam tasted little of peaches and was cloyingly sweet, and we still have over a half dozen quarts left that we will likely never eat. The way I made the blueberry jam should be good for a couple weeks, leaving it in the fridge.

 

Thanks! Will try this ratio.
The jam I made is not too bad but still way too sweet.
Here it's mainly berries that are in season, so I'll be experimenting with that.
I would guess that this technique works with all fruits?

 

Berries and stone fruits; not sure I can vouch for citrus, etc. If you will eat it over the next week or two I would mainly add sugar to taste instead of the large quantities needed to preserve.

The choice to thicken strawberries, etc. with either pectin or by adding a high-pectin fruit/ berry is really a personal decision. In general I would consider adding pectin to a jam made from strawberries or raspberries if I wanted to keep it 'pure'.

 

I like freezer jam, but not the full sugar version. I get the reduced-sugar formula pectin. My favorite combinations so far have been blueberry/apricot/ginger jam and strawberry/raspberry/serano chile jam. I've got a flat of blueberries in the refrigerator right now that I need to clean up and throw in the freezer to make jam with when I have a few minutes.

 

If you check out the "Certo" web site, they usually have the recipes for "insert fruit here" with the type and amount of pectin that is required to achieve the correct results. Scroll down, and click the more recipes tab
http://www.kraftcanada.com/brands/certo/recipes

 

Thanks for all the info!
I tried making jam with about 200g sugar for over 200g blueberry and 600g strawberries and it turned out better than my first attempt. I used lime to preserve the pectin as I didn't have lemon on hand then left it to macerate overnight before cooking it in high heat for about 10 minutes. Turned out quite thick and you taste the fruit much more.
Next attempt I will reduce the sugar by about 25% as it's still a bit too sweet, also need to try a different fruit combination.
This is becoming quite fun!

 

Dude, just think about it for a moment.... Recipe calling for 6-7 kg of sugar for 10 kg of strawberries? Jesus that jam then costs a boatload of money! And must be sweet like a hell broken loose! Damn, what about youre berries being very sweet, lets say the plants are not old [4 years is the max if i remember correctly], the soil is awesome theres beautiful right amount of water and so your berries are naturally sweet. And you throw so much sugar on them. F**k me.
Point is, taste your berries beforehand and your jam before jarring

She nowadays buys gelling sugar, which is pectin i think derived from orange peel, in our family tradition is straight flavoured jams, straight strawberries, gooseberries, apples, pears or what not, not much blending in the jam section more in marmalades. If there is mixing, then it would be like apples and some cloves or something, but not two separate fruit flavours.

Would say any veggie gelling agent would do the job its all question of price, at the end of the day people made conserves so they could eat fruit and veg during winter time when there was cold, lack of vitamins and it was all damn expensive. It was not a trend.

 

Point well taken
That being said the first recipes I watched were advocating same amout of sugar as fruit so 1 kg of sugar for 1kg of strawberries

 

Like Lucritia, I like like low sugar freezer jams, love no cook freezer jams. I've always had great luck with Walnut Acres L.M. Pectin or Pomona's Universal Pectin. They include some calcium powder ( monocalcium phosphate) necessary with low calcium fruit. Great instructions for no cook and low sugar recipes. You can use as little as 3/4 cup of sugar to 4 cups of berries for cooked and 1 cup sugar to 4 cups fruit for uncooked freezer.