Question for jam makers

[srock]

Hello,

I am new to jam making since I just moved into a new house with 3 ripening plum trees. It's not just an exciting process and a labor of love, it's also income from my own produce, which is the most gratifying thing.

My question is regarding my most recent batch of jam. I used 1.5x the plums I had previously, and 1/3 less water, and the same amount of sugar. I boiled and cooled it 4 times as I had previously, and this time the jam turned out with the same consistency yet with LESS flavor. The flavor was great before, I was just experimenting to see if I could make a larger volume of jam in the same pot by using less water and more fruit. Does anyone have a clue as to why this might be?

 

[CanadianLori]

NEVER mess with volumes in a jam recipe. Same for jellies. You cannot simply multiply the ingrdients and try to tweak the liquid to compensate.

 

[Corzhens]

Gee, I have seen a photo of the plum tree of my husband's cousin. It was very prolific with maybe a hundred fruits. Considering that the tree is not a big tree, just like a mulberry tree. From what I understand, the small plum are made into prunes. Am I correct on that? But how about the big plums, are they good to be jammed? We can buy plums here, the black and red variety although it's quite expensive.

 

[IcyBC]

I have dappled with making strawberry jam, and haven't found the correct balance yet. Some turned out too thick while some were just runny. Will have to keep trying to find the perfect consistency that family likes.

 

[CanadianLori]

You can make jams or jellies out of just about any fruit. Find recipes that have a 4 or 5 star rating on a place like Allrecipes.com and you will most likely be richly rewarded.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Plum-J...-tools/print/recipe.aspx&soid=sr_results_p1i1

 

[headfullofbees]

I have dappled with making strawberry jam, and haven't found the correct balance yet. Some turned out too thick while some were just runny. Will have to keep trying to find the perfect consistency that family likes.

Strawberry jam is actually one of the more difficult.

 

[Kansas Terri]

The flavor was great before, I was just experimenting to see if I could make a larger volume of jam in the same pot by using less water and more fruit. Does anyone have a clue as to why this might be?

Less flavor. Hmm.

Did you use or change the amount of lemon juice in either batch? Lemon juice is used because it not only helps things to jell it also brings out the flavor, more.

Do you know what I love? The pectin to use to make sugar-free jam. Ordinary pectin needs both acid and sugar to make it jell, but the sugar free pectin does not, so a jam maker can really let loose her creative side! For my reduced sugar jam I used to leave out the lemon juice entirely and use half the sugar the recipe would call for, which gave me a very fruity and gently sweet spread.

When I make the reduced sugar jam, once I have a pot full of something that tastes the way I want it to, I just have to measure out the correct amount of fruit mix for the sugar-free pectin. I then cook it up very fast, stirring constantly because it will burn very easily, and then the jam is done