Topic: strawberry jam not setting

[Gail-M]

Hi,

anyone got any ideas how to have success with strawberry jam?

I made jam but it did not set. I was so disappointed. The same thing happened last year so I'm beginning to think I should give up.

regards Gail : ???

[supersprout]

Don't give up gail :o :D this happens to everyone at some time.
Troubleshooting: could be under-boiling, lack of pectin or acid, or too much shugger.

Strawbs don't set on their own because they're low in pectin and some are also low in acid. Did you add lemon juice, to bump up the pectin and acid content? Proportions in my Booke are 7 lb strawbs, 6 lb sugar and juice of 2 lemons.
Alternative is goosegog or redcurrant juice or commercial pectin plus citric/tartaric acid, but the lemons have always done the trick here.

Is this any help ::)

Call your runny jam Conserve and people will fight for it ;)

[trojanrabbit]

Supersprout is right, it will set with just the addition of lemon juice, but you do need to get it just right.
A traditional remedy without too much influence on the flavour was to include several under-ripe apples, as these are very high in pectin.

I've never done any myself, but my Mum used to do strawberry jam (among others) most years while I was at home - she used a recipe several generations old I think, with nearly 100% success rate. I'll see if I can get the recipe.

By contrast, my grandmother (other side), bless her, makes strawberry "jam" most years, has never really grasped the idea of how jams set, and just adds a ton of sugar then boils it until it doesn't move! Not the way forward. ::)

[Mrs Ava]

I used apples last year and it set very well, but you want strawberry jam to be sloppy rather than set hard like jelly.  Preserving sugar is good, and you can get powdered pectin from most supermarkets, and the thing with using that is you don't have to reach setting point, you just boil it for 'x' amount of minutes and then bottle.

I will be using the Womens Institute strawb jam recipe tomorrow so will let you know how it goes.

[jennym]

You can test for pectin easily before you add the sugar. This avoids the scenario where people trying boiling and boilding and end up burning it.
Cook your fruit. take it off the heat. Put a couple of drops of the cooked juice into an eggcup, allow this to cool for a minute or so.
Well away from the cooking area, gently pour a little methylated spirits into the eggcup, wait about 10 seconds. tip contents of eggcup into a container. If pectin is present, the juice will have formed a jellified blob. The more jelly-like it is, the more pectin is present. If it's runny, try cooking more, adding lemon juice, etc as previously mentioned, and boil up again, test again.
When happy, then add the sugar and bring back up to boil.

[Columbus]

Hi Gail,

I dispensed with fiddly attempts to use bottled pectin, lemon juice, apples etc. Just use jam sugar with added pectin which you can get from supermarkets. Be sure to get the right one because the similarity in the packaging can be confusing.

In practice, if you want to reduce costs a bit you can subsitute about half your sugar for regular sugar which you can buy in huge bags at a lower price. You still get enough pectin to set your jam. I never weigh anything but you can use about half and half.

After you have your jam at a rolling boil for four minutes minimum test it by putting a few drops onto a plate cold from the fridge, it may start to set whilst its still on the spoon but the puddle of jam on the plate should skin over and start to look like jam whilst you watch. If it doesn`t set at that stage add half a bag of pectin sugar to your hot pan, make sure it boils for four minutes and try again. It usually takes me two or three times to get it just right but I`m probably mean with the sugar.

I`ve made 12 pounds of strawberry jam and 5 pounds of rhubarb jam so far  this year, I`m freezing strawbs `til I can get more jars. I`m still eating last years jams. Some of my earlier ones were runny but they are great on ice-cream or panakes sonothing is wasted.

I don`t quite follow this recipe anymore but it might help  http://www.malcbro.demon.co.uk/fruitjelly.htm

Keep trying  :) Col

[Gail-M]

Thanks everyone for helpful advice and encouragement !!

I had added lemon juice - I'll try apples next time and cross my fingers.

happy jam making  :) ;)

[Largo]

If you take out 1 cup of juice from the pan before you add the warmed preserve sugar your jam should be OK. I have used this method for a couple of years now and this year I won first prize in our local show. There were 10 other entries ! There will then be no need for lemons, apples, gooseberries or any such.

[Largo]

Sorry that's 1 cup of juice for every pound of fruit