Plum Jelly boo boo, try #2

[roosmom]

This was me in the am. I put up 12 jars of plum jelly last night (first time making it). When I got up this am, I saw that I had plum syrup.
I know I can probably redo it but, if it was mouth puckering in the first place is it worth redoing? I can tell you something: make sure you have more that enough to do whatever youre doing. I ran out of pectin and had to borrow something different from the neighbor. Maybe it was that, maybe it was over ripe, maybe I didnt boil it long enough...GGRRRRR
Anyone else have any canning boo boo's they want to share?

 

[patandchickens]

This was me in the am. I put up 12 jars of plum jelly last night (first time making it). When I got up this am, I saw that I had plum syrup.
I know I can probably redo it but, if it was mouth puckering in the first place is it worth redoing?

Yeah I know what you mean - I struggled with this about 6 months ago, having made about 6-7 jars of mostly-cherry jelly that was just loathesome to me. It tasted like cough syrup. And I *hate* cough syrup. I tried and tried to learn to like it on ice cream, in smoothies, in baked goods, etc, but you know what? Bleaaahhhh. I finally put the last three jars in the compost b/c I needed the jars back

I am surprised plum jelly would be "mouth-puckering" though - is it possible you didn't put enough sugar in? (which could also account for it not jelling right - you need a certain ratio of sugar to pectin to get a set)

Anyone else have any canning boo boo's they want to share?

About once a year I try to fit more in the jelly kettle than I should and it ends up foaming up and overflowing and setting off the smoke detector so I have screaming kids and a stove covered in hot sugar-foam... but honestly, the regularity with which I do this almost makes it *expected* rather than a boo boo per se, sigh

Pat

 

[roosmom]

Just what I needed to hear.
The plums this year (so far) are not the normal sweet we all expect. I did cut back on the sugar because the neighbors Pectin was for " less sugar" recipes. I just dont know what way I went wrong. If I had just changed the sugar then I would know......But three things changed?----rookie mistake, thats me this year I guess.

 

[roosmom]

Well, here goes nothing. I just redid my plum jelly. Am in middle of batch of blackberry jam too. gotta go

 

[roosmom]

YAY, it worked. Plum jelly hardened up AND the Blackberry jam is sooooo good too.
Patandchickens, it had to have been the lesser amt of sugar I tried the first time because of the different sure-jells. Second time around I put two cups sugar in and 1 more box of sure-jell.

 

[TanksHill]

I allways use the less sugar pectin. Mostly the appricot, nectarines and sweet berries do just fine. this year my first few batches of Plum were low sugar. The skins were so tart it did not turn out so well. It set fine but tasted yucky. For the remaining batches I went back to full sugar. They were just fine. Good luck. Gina

 

[roosmom]

Added 2 more cups of sugar and another box of sure jell. Yes the plums seem to be kinda tart this year Tankshill.

 

[keljonma]

Earlier this summer, a friend and I were discussing making jam. I casually mentioned that I have never used pectin in the 35 years I have been making jams and preserves. My mom didn't use it and she was the one who taught me how to make jam.

Well, my friend was completely shocked - she had never heard of NOT using pectin! She went on and on about how much easier and less time consuming it is to make jam with pectin. Well, I am not against saving time, so I decided to try it. Because I had never used packaged pectin before, I followed the directions that came with the package to the T.

For the first time in I don't know how many years, my jam did not set! I had to recook a batch of peach jam, because I didn't want peach syrup. So my experience was NOT very time saving. Needless to say, I'll stick with what works for me.

 

[TanksHill]

Earlier this summer, a friend and I were discussing making jam. I casually mentioned that I have never used pectin in the 35 years I have been making jams and preserves. My mom didn't use it and she was the one who taught me how to make jam.

Well, my friend was completely shocked - she had never heard of NOT using pectin! She went on and on about how much easier and less time consuming it is to make jam with pectin. Well, I am not against saving time, so I decided to try it. Because I had never used packaged pectin before, I followed the directions that came with the package to the T.

For the first time in I don't know how many years, my jam did not set! I had to recook a batch of peach jam, because I didn't want peach syrup. So my experience was NOT very time saving. Needless to say, I'll stick with what works for me.

How do you make jam without pectin? Can you make a low sugar version? thanks for sharing. Gina

 

[patandchickens]

You have to use fruits that are naturally high in pectin - not all fruits will work, and in some cases all you'll get is a softish set. You can't reduce the amount of sugar below what it takes to get the pectin to set - it is less than in some normal commercial-pectin recipes, but not comparable to the no-sugar-added fruit pectin recipes.

If you are doing it this way you pretty much *have* to learn how to test for gel, since different batches of fruit will have different pectin content, in an unpredictable way.

It makes really good jam, though, IMO. If you want to try one of these, I would recommend either any sort of basically-citrus marmalade, or currant jelly (which unfortunately it is too late for this year).

Have fun,

Pat