Topic: Mould on Jam

[Chantenay]

For that petulant school teacher who threw away a jar of home made jam, here is what the Goddess Delia has to say:
"If a mould develops on the surface, remove it plus about half an inch (1cm) of the jam underneath. The rest of the jam will not be affected".
(Page 615 Complete Cookery Course.)
So yah boo to Wasteful Miss!

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Too true.  Nothing wrong with the jam underneath. 

[Jeannine]

Oh I am going to get myself into trouble here, sorry but I have to strongly disagree.

The mould on jam puts out spores that send invisible thread down into the jam, scooping off the top does not remove it.

Delia's book is way behind the times, so are wax paper circles , wax on jam  reused  old jars and  brand new self sealing jars if not water bathed,as it cannot prevent mould.

As I do so much food preservation from jams, jellies, fruit , veggies and meat and fish I have always kept very current on the progress on safe food prep and I  squirm when I see directions given in books  these days.

I hear someone saying"it has never hurt me and I have been doing it for years" well that is good, but it has hurt a great many people, the mould can make you sick, improperly preserved tomatoes can kill you.

Sorry , but this is one I feel very passionate about, please read more up to date stuff.

Would you really scrape the mould of jam , then put it on toast for your 2 year old?

I know I am  going to get blasted for this I usually do, but please read the data.The UK is way behind the times on this one.

XX Jeannine

[tim]

Jeannine - I do respect your love of doing, but this is the first time I have to disagree!

There may be new scientific ways of preserving but, in all our very many years, we have scraped it off. No harm to any of our 12 descendants. And still tastes good.

But we still love you!!

[Barnowl]

I'm afraid I'm with Tim: 50 years of mould removal from jams and I and the rest of the family are still here :)

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Generations of raid jam scrapers in my family too.  Too much emphasis nowadays on ultra-clean food.

The very high incidence of young people and older children being permently ill with stomach upsets is because the kitchen from which they are fed is cleaner than an operating theatre.

[Doris_Pinks]

It was my embarrassed daughter who had my jam thrown by the teacher :-[  So I too am a scraper! (The jam was going to be cooked in tarts too!!!)

But then I am quite old school, baby dropped it's dummy, wipe it on t-shirt, suck it and give it back to them! :o :o (running for the door now............)

[Oldmanofthewoods]

1. Blow on food (no idea why - but my Mum used to say blow the fluff off)
2. Eat food

[Larkshall]

Regarding mould on jam. There are two basically different types of sugar, Cane and Beet. Proper preserving sugar was made from cane, and preserved jam very well. Then they discovered that beet could be processed to obtain sugar, whilst it serves as a good substitute for normal cooking (and for those people who must heap sugar on their food), it is not good for preserving things. I can remember when jam jars were covered with a paper and tied with string. When opened they had a crust of dried sugar on top which was perfectly edible. Jam was stored all year round and sometimes more than a year. When they started using beet sugar for jam they had then to seal jars hermetically to stop it going bad. Now all commercial jams contain gel which adds another dimension to the problem.

[Jeannine]

See what I mean.  XX Jeannine.

[Melbourne12]

Oh I am going to get myself into trouble here, sorry but I have to strongly disagree.

The mould on jam puts out spores that send invisible thread down into the jam, scooping off the top does not remove it.

Delia's book is way behind the times, so are wax paper circles , wax on jam  reused  old jars and  brand new self sealing jars if not water bathed,as it cannot prevent mould.

As I do so much food preservation from jams, jellies, fruit , veggies and meat and fish I have always kept very current on the progress on safe food prep and I  squirm when I see directions given in books  these days.

I hear someone saying"it has never hurt me and I have been doing it for years" well that is good, but it has hurt a great many people, the mould can make you sick, improperly preserved tomatoes can kill you.

Sorry , but this is one I feel very passionate about, please read more up to date stuff.

Would you really scrape the mould of jam , then put it on toast for your 2 year old?

I know I am  going to get blasted for this I usually do, but please read the data.The UK is way behind the times on this one.

XX Jeannine

Hear, hear!

My old mum used to maintain that the mould didn't do you any harm, and was in fact "penicillin" and therefore if anything good for you.  We regularly ate mouldy jam (she wasn't the best jam-maker in the world, thinking back on it  ;D )

Then she served the family a Christmas pud (made a while before Christmas) that had surface mould on it and which she'd scraped off.  I think she'd steamed it to reheat it before she discovered the problem, which may have made it worse.

My goodness, were we ill!  I'll draw a veil over the events of Christmas afternoon.

I have treated mould with great respect ever since.  It's just not worth it.

[Jeannine]

Big problem is that moulds have changed over the generations and are not what they used to be,fruits have changed too and processing has to change to keep pace. Tomatoes were always OK bottled in just a water bath now many just are simply not safe done this way, adding lemon juice is just a crutch.

I know I preach to deaf ears here but I often wonder how many people have actually read the new info, I don't mean an article, I mean  the real government guidlines!!

The only reason I stick my neck out is because I do keep pace,and if folks know there are new rules they can choose  just  like we all do with pesticides for example!!!

What we did and then  what we do now with them is hair raising too.

Why take the risk??

 XX Jeannine

[Melbourne12]

Jeannine,

Do you have a link to the current FSA guidelines on home preserving?  The USDA ones are always easy to find http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html

but since MAFF became DEFRA and FSA and goodness knows what other agencies, it's a nightmare to find anything other then baby-talk about 5 a day.  ::)

Cheers

Melbourne12

[Jeannine]

I always follow the US ones, and if anyone is reading this please make sure you read the most recent one which is 1994. It is a very big document by the way.

As canning is done so widely in the US, much  much more  than anywhere else I have found  I feel they are in a better position to recognise the pitfalls  and I trust them implicity.

XX Jeannine

[Squashfan]

I'm with Jeannine on this one, chuck the jam away if it's got mould on it, no use getting sick over 25 pence worth of fruit and sugar! :P
I make my jam with preserving sugar, boil it, seal it and then boil it to death in a water bath for a vacuum seal (I use the French jars with rubber seals, all of which are cleaned thoroughly and dried, plus they look great). May be a bit over-cautious about it but I've never had mould on my jam, and it tastes lovely. In fact I made some smashing rhubarb jam just last week.
I also may be very American about it but I don't trust those little bits of paper and string at all. Have to hear the pop! of the vacuum seal.
My mother-in-law (who took a course on this, she's a teacher) says most food-borne illnesses occur from home cooking, so I'm willing to believe her on this one. Not to say everything has to be antiseptic, but a bit of respect for all the ingredients is needed.
Happy jamming everybody!   ;D

[Jeannine]

It has been the most frustrating thing I have ever found regarding cookery, even at night class courses I have taught I have had folks argue with the facts. 

Yet rarely do folks argue about pesticides, even if they don't understand they err on the side of caution.

Not so with preserving.

There are even rules regarding selling home made preserves but few people bother to follow them.

It scare the life out of me when I hear some of the stories, like sealing in the oven etc.

XX Jeannine

[Chantenay]

Sorry people - I didn't realise this would start a ruccus - but a very interesting one.
I feel better informed - but I am still a right old s lu t

[valmarg]

I agree with Delia, Tim, et al.  Scrape the mould off the top of the jam, and eat whats left!!

I was always told as a kiddie, you have to eat a peck of muck, it helps to build up your antibodies.

That is why I would never take any notice of any USA advice on food.  Their food has to be so sterile, that if they came across a stray bug they would have no antibodies to fight it!!

Sugar, vinegar and salt are all preservatives.  Why the hell they have to have 'best by' dates on them is a mystery!!

Cheese, for example, was the old method of preserving milk.  If I've left a piece of cheese in the fridge, and its grown a bit of mould on it, I would have no problem cutting it off, and eating the remaining cheese, cooked or uncooked!!

I think having food too sterile is the problem.

valmarg

[Jeannine]

But generally the muck you ate as a kid didn't have something in it that caused cancer in rats!!

I am not as fussy as you might think by the way,but I am on this particular point.

XX Jeannine

[valmarg]

Where the bl**dy hell are  you coming from Jeannine??

The muck that I ate as a child caused cancer in rats!!!

What does that mean??

valmarg