How do you know if your jellies and jams will set up?!


Question: How do you know if your jellies and jams will set up!?
When canning jams and jellies- What determines whether or not they will set up and how long do they take to set up!?Www@FoodAQ@Com


Answers:
When you make jams or jellies, you have to follow the recipes exactly!. They are developed to produce a proportion of acid (fruit), liquid, and sugar that is "perfect"!. That is why they tell you not to double a batch!. If the fruit is a low acid fruit, you add lemon juice to up the acid!. In the very olden days - yes, even before me - they didn't use pectin to make jams and jellies!. They added apples (which are high in pectin) or cooked it for long periods of time!. This would lower the liquid part of the proportion and help it gel better, but it would also give the product a less appealing flavor!. So, now we have commercial pectin to help make sure that our jams and jellies set or gel!.

Yet, sometimes our jams and jellies still do not gel!. Like my raspberry and apricot jams have a hard time setting!. They tell me that if you wait two weeks, you will know for sure if they are set or gelled!. So, when my jams or jellies do not gel and it has been two weeks, I "fix" it!. I open the lid and pour the jam back into a deep pot!. I bring the jam to a rolling boil!. This is a boil that you cannot stir down!. I then time the boiling for exactly two minutes!. I pull the hood fan out and I even blow on the darn thing!. I am trying to decrease the liquid that is in there, and I am stirring constantly to make sure it does not burn!. After the two minutes, I return the jam to the jars and re-process them again!. If I have just a jar, I don't bother with the re-processing!. We just eat it!. I know it will set this next time because when I put the jam back in the jars, there is less jam! I wait the two weeks, and sure enough, it gels!.

I think the reason it doesn't gel is because of the fruit I use!.!.!.who knows how ripe it is, and what the sugar content is!? On the pectin package you can tell which ones will have a hard time, and I just do my best!. It does surprise me that one batch will set up and another the same day will not!. It is worth it to me though!. Good luck!Www@FoodAQ@Com

First it has to be cooked to the gell stage!. Then as the jars are cooling they finish setting up!.Www@FoodAQ@Com





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