That's what my blackberry and apple 'jam' has turned into. 2½kg handpicked blackberries, 12 cooking apples and 2½kg preserving sugar all contributed to a jam pan of sugary, fruity slop.All because my youngest two would not go out of the kitchen after being asked NUMEROUS times to leave me alone while I boiled down some fruit prior to putting sugar in. I don't often ask them to leave me alone, only when I'm cooking boiling hot fruit that could spit up and burn them.
I was so distracted I forgot to boil the fruits down first before adding the sugar and put the whole lot in together, so I couldn't measure the fruit afterwards to work out the correct amount of sugar to put in.
I'm chilling it now to see if it will set. If not, I'll add more pectin tomorrow and boil it up again. If it does set, I'll have to give most of it away as it won't keep for long.
I suppose I could ladle it into pots and freeze it, taking out what I need and use it as a compote or make some pastry and use it as a pie filling, or bake it with a crumble topping, or puree it down and freeze to make an ice-cream sauce ..... hmmm, maybe it is salvageable after all. I didn't spend a year of my evenings on a cooking course for nothing you know!
3 comments:
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope you haven't dumped your jam yet. Try it again with more pectin, but even then it could take up to 24 hours to set. I have a few jars of blueberry jam that still haven't set up from last year, we pour it over pancakes.
A few years ago, I made jalapeno jelly that never did set up so the following year, I opened them added more pectin and resealed them, they were just fine.
(I hate to see good food go to waste, so I always try to salvage it somehow.)
If it doesn't set up in 24 hours, add more pectin and fruit and set to boil a bit more.
I'm sure it will be great!
Also - I freeze tons (not literally, of course) of jam.
Thanks all! I had already considered adding more pectin, but it's so early in the blackberry season I've still got a few weeks left to pick more so I'm going to keep this one as a conserve. It's half-set and the children have already enjoyed eating it smothered literally over home made sesame topped bread! The rest is destined for the freezer.
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