Make jams and jellies for the perfect dessert and breakfast topping

For many, a breakfast without a nice jam or jelly would be unthinkable, and nothing beats homemade. Making it is a simple affair that involves chopping or mashing fruit and boiling it with sugar.

Jellies, on the other hand, make use of pure fruit juices. Although all fruits contain natural pectin, the trick to getting a jam or jelly to gel lies in striking the proper balance between acids and pectin. Cleanliness is crucial when processing fruit. Even the tiniest contamination of fruit or utensils could cause the product to go bad.

• In addition to a cutting board and knife, you need a scale, a large pot, a stirring spoon and a skimmer.
• Copper pots are excellent heat conductors, but they react with acids, so a stainless steel pot is a better choice.
• A funnel and ladle make it easier to jar your jams and jellies.

• To get the fruit juice necessary for a jelly, add your cleaned, minced fruit to a pot with a little jam sugar to draw out the juice.
• Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer until all the fruit floats to the top.
• Pour the fruit mixture and its fluid into a strainer lined with cheesecloth and collect the juice in a bowl. Don't squeeze out the juice or your jelly will be cloudy.
• Boil the juice with an equal amount of jam sugar for five to 10 minutes.
• After the gel test (see below), pour into jars and seal.
• You can increase the amount of juice you get by returning the fruit mixture to the pot after it has been strained, covering it with water and simmering it again.

1. Put a small dollop of the boiling fruit mixture onto a plate rinsed in very cold water.

2. Let the sample cool down by placing it briefly in the fridge.

3. If the dollop congeals and no water forms around it, then the mixture is ready for canning.

• In principle, nearly all fruits are good for making jams and jellies. The higher the pectin content of the fruit, the shorter the cooking time. Some fruits require you to add pectin in the form of lemon juice, other fruits or pectin concentrate.
• Apples, blackberries, red currants, gooseberries and citrus fruits are high in pectin, so they gel very quickly.
• Apricots, raspberries, black currants, yellow plums, nectarines, peaches and plums have a moderate amount of pectin; a little lemon juice helps them gel.
• Pineapple, pears, strawberries, elderberries, cherries, pumpkin and grapes have a low pectin content. Add the juice from a lemon to these fruits, or combine them with other quick-to-gel fruits that are high in pectin.

--------------------

Discover the smarter way to save time and money

Ready to start saving more on your groceries and pharmacy purchases? Download the FREE YP Grocery app today! It lets you create shareable shopping lists, automatically finds all the best deals and coupons, then delivers them right to you. No more manually scrolling through hundreds of flyers to find what you’re looking for!

Download the YP Grocery app now!