unsweetened jams

[moolie]

Oh, and full sugar jams can actually sit out without refrigeration for months. Our English friends never refrigerate their jams (nor most of their condiments like ketchup or mustard, although they are careful to keep the mayo and salad cream in the fridge!) and never have any problems--pretty typical over there.

I've heard this before, about the jams stored at room temp. Makes sense but DW is practically in a panic to refrigerate things and I don't care enough to lobby for a new policy. I suspect that part of the room-temp-jam success is based on using it in a reasonable period of time.

What's salad cream?

Lol, salad cream is a (disgusting tasting in my opinion) traditional English salad dressing.

 

[ORChick]

Room temperature in the British Isles is not equivalent to room temperature in much of North America. Even with the AC going I don't like to leave certain things out on the counter during the summer (we keep the thermostat fairly high). However, I grew up in a very English type climate - in the fog belt of the northern California coast. Room temperature in the summer in that house was generally in the high 50s/low 60s. No problem whatsoever leaving things out

 

[Britesea]

Britesea, are these freezer/fridge jams or canned jams that you are finding have a shorter shelf life?

Back in the 70s my Mom used to can batches of fruit (peaches, pears, apricots, apples, cherries) in just water because she wasn't into all the sugar for herself when she ate canned fruit (she canned the rest in a pretty light syrup for the rest of the family). We had jars of that fruit that lasted just fine for up to 3-4 years in a few cases. My Mom stopped canning certain local fruits when we left the Okanagan in 1979 and I opened a jar of apricots in 1981 after we moved to a new community (the moves and locations are how I know the dates) by accident (didn't notice the "no sugar" note on the lid) and knew immediately when I tasted it that it was one of the just water batches. Colour, texture, taste (if you like bland water canned fruit) was still just fine and my Mom enjoyed the rest of the jar.

I've got several varieties of Pomona's pectin jam, some with very little sweetener (honey and maple syrup primarily) and some with no extra sweetener that are lalbelled 2011, we just opened a jar last week and it's still lovely

Moolie, I was referring to canned jams, that have been opened. The sealed cans are no problem at all, although I've only been canning for 3 years-- I do have a few jars that are from the first year and they are still fine.

 

[moolie]

Britesea, are these freezer/fridge jams or canned jams that you are finding have a shorter shelf life?

Back in the 70s my Mom used to can batches of fruit (peaches, pears, apricots, apples, cherries) in just water because she wasn't into all the sugar for herself when she ate canned fruit (she canned the rest in a pretty light syrup for the rest of the family). We had jars of that fruit that lasted just fine for up to 3-4 years in a few cases. My Mom stopped canning certain local fruits when we left the Okanagan in 1979 and I opened a jar of apricots in 1981 after we moved to a new community (the moves and locations are how I know the dates) by accident (didn't notice the "no sugar" note on the lid) and knew immediately when I tasted it that it was one of the just water batches. Colour, texture, taste (if you like bland water canned fruit) was still just fine and my Mom enjoyed the rest of the jar.

I've got several varieties of Pomona's pectin jam, some with very little sweetener (honey and maple syrup primarily) and some with no extra sweetener that are lalbelled 2011, we just opened a jar last week and it's still lovely

Moolie, I was referring to canned jams, that have been opened. The sealed cans are no problem at all, although I've only been canning for 3 years-- I do have a few jars that are from the first year and they are still fine.

Ah, I was confused and was thinking "shelf life".

Opened jars of jam don't last long around here, but for some reason no one eats much jam in the summer so I know I've got 3 jars in the fridge right now that have been open since sometime in May--never in my life had an opened jar of jam spoil.

On the "room temperature" topic, it does get pretty hot in the UK during the summer months (which is when we visit our friends and family over there) and I've never seen a jar of jam go bad there either.

 

[Britesea]

The only open jars I've had go bad surprisingly fast are low or no-sugar jams- they will get white fuzzy spots in as little as 3 days at room temperature, while I found a forgotten jar on top of the fridge with a few tablespoons of full sugar strawberry jam that got overlooked until it dried up and hardened with nary a spot in it.
We live in an arid environment, but the house can get pretty humid when I'm doing lots of cooking-- I wonder if that's the problem?