Last of the summer jam

It’s late in the season and the blackberries are almost over. I love this time of year. It’s a time for blackberry and apple pie. And jam making, a wonderful way to preserve any fruit.

We used to stomp through blackberry bushes making prickly mazes, hooking far flung fruit with walking sticks collected from dead relatives. We’d return home grazed, pricked and with purple fingers and lips from scoffing the sweet fruit.

Jam making should be simple – for most it is a 1:1 ratio of fruit and granulated sugar – but it all depends on the level of pectin, which sets the jam, and acid in the fruit.

But before you do anything sterilise the jars by boiling them. They needn’t be anything fancy and if you have to buy them check out Asian supermarkets first where they only cost a few dollars each.

And wash the fruit properly.

Apples, Gooseberries and Quince are all high in pectin, as are citrus – oranges and lemons. But soft fruits including strawberries, blackberries, peaches, apricots and plums are low in it. As is rhubarb.

Pectin levels will become lower the more ripe it is or if there have been some kinds of fungal infection.

Rather than use a commercial jam setter though, the easiest way to add pectin is to add citrus peel to the jam.

Weight the fruit. The ratio generally is 1:1 fruit to caster granulated or preserving sugar.

You can also test for pectin, which can be a wise move, as it’s saves having to fiddle around with jam that won’t set later.

First cook the fruit, without the sugar, but for every 1kg, the juice and rind of a lemon (which you can wrap in muslin).

Simmer the fruit first. Without sugar. But with lemon juice and rind.

To test, take one teaspoon of the pulp and let it cool in a teacup. Add three teaspoons of methylated spirits. If one big blob forms there is a lot of pectin. If 3 or 4 smaller blobs form it’s medium in pectin. And if it’s lots of small blobs you really need to add more lemon peel.

Heat the sugar to body temperature in the oven.

Before you do anything more ensure you’ve warmed the sugar in the oven. This stops it reducing the temperature of the fruit.

Heat until setting point. 220C.

The next step is to add sugar and heat it until the setting point is reached at 104.5C or 220F. And try not to burn yourself.

At this point you can test whether or not the jam has reached this point by blobbing a spoonful on a plate and seeing if it sets. If it doesn’t add more sugar and lemon juice – having enough acid is essential to setting.

Next it’s just a matter of putting the jam in jars and setting it.

The method is similar for most jams with the exception of strawberry and rhubarb. For strawberry , you need to macerate them in sugar over night first. And with rhubarb you need to macerate it with sugar – in a 3:4 sugar to fruit ratio – with the lemon juice.

Go forth. Make jam. And I’ll be randomly giving away one pot of Apricot and one Blackberry home made Jam to commenters.