Any Jam Makers or Home Canners Out There?

Now that summer is nearly here for most of our latitudes, just wondering if there are any dedicated jam makers or canners out there? (Realize it’s been really hot for parts of the country already)

I love making jams, chutneys, pickled beans and all sorts of tomato products. Will be making local strawberry jam soon & am going to try a different method than usual. I do make reduced sugar products & get it as low as I can so that it will still set. No added sugar to the tomatoes. Anyway gearing up for hopefully another good year of bountiful crops.

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We just finished jarring strawberry and rhubarb jam. Separate and together fruit jams. Next up is peach and plum, marinated garlic, marinated eggplant, tomato jam.

While we don’t do a lot of variety we typically jar about 50 in total to enjoy or gift to family.

Do you have specific recipes you follow?

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I made Seville orange marmalade earlier in the year. I’m sure I’ll make a couple of chutneys in the autumn but that will depend on finding cheap produce.

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Your jams & future canning plans sound good!

I do use recipes but I have learned what I can get away with in terms of sugar to fruit ratio. There’s a delicious pepper relish recipe that comes with I think the MCP lower sugar pectin. I like to use pectin so the berries don’t get so cooked they lose their fresh flavor. We have a large and productive plum tree, so I have mixed plum with strawberry and plum with raspberry. In both cases the berry flavor dominates with the plum just being a background note. I also last year made two different Asian plum sauces which turned out very well. I accidentally scorched some peach sauce I was making, but it tasted really good so I called it carmelized peach sauce. Everyone I gifted loved it!

Anyway, just look forward to these projects, I may do some dried fruit and tomatoes too, as our ovens go low enough to be a dehydrator.

As an added note, I’ve tried a plum blackberry jam, but neither of the flavors came through, so won’t do that again.

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Well I wish I could share my plum bounty with you.

It is on my radar to make some lime marmalade similar to Rose’s. Will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Also want to get some Blenheim apricots from California as well as apricots from the eastern part of Washington. Will probably can some salsa too. Pickled garlic, jalapeños the list goes on and on …

My notes tell me that someone did share theirs with me a few years back. I made plum chutney using these ingredients:

2lb cooking apples
1lb onion
1lb raisins
3lb plums
1 pint malt vinegar
1 tsp ground nutmeg
0.5 tsp each of ground ginger, cayenne & mustard powder
1 tble salt
1 tble allspice
6oz soft brown sugar

It’s straightforward chutney making procedure so I’m sure you’ll manage without detailed instructions (but shout if you’re not sure). This made about 6lb total.

In real life, I’m now a researcher and writer about World War 1 and have published a book about food during the war. Jam formed part of military rations and, whilst my research indicates there were many fruits used, soldiers’ memoirs always seem to mention that it was plum & apple. I’ve never made jam but reckon I’d like to try this one sometime, particularly if I can find a contemporary recipe. Maybe next time someone gives me a load of plums.

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Thank you for taking the time to post the recipe! It will go on my list for this year, and I’ll let you know how it turns out.

It’s pretty cool that you’re a World War 1 historian and author. The fact that you include food into the history is great. So many books exclude food altogether!

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Food was absolutely essential to the war effort, of course. And such a process to get meat coming from, say, Uruguay all the way to a man in a front line trench in Belgium where he ate it under fire. And I found some great stories to tell - men’s letters home were often full of food matters, whether a complaint about repetitive army rations or thanking a relative for sending a nice fruit cake.

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Do you have a recipe to share?

Yes, I have two, I’ll get them posted a little later this morning. :blush:

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Marinated garlic and tomato jam sound really good - do you have recipes you could share?

I’ve always heard that garlic has to be preserved carefully (botulism?) but then there are indian garlic pickles, so…

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I’m not sure I’m dedicated, but I do make jam, jelly, and preserved lemons every year. For stonefruit jam, I almost always use Cooks Illustrated small batch instructions.

I also use “Cooking In Jars”.

But my big annual project is about Poblano pepper jelly. With very specific red poblanos with moderate but noticible heat , and not pepper jam. They are so pretty, and when you have a lot of fruit, you don’t mind discarding the solids.

Garlic is a problem in oil, but pickled with vinegar it’s perfectly safe. I think homemade sun dried tomatoes in a spiced oil would be ok too. Something I will have to check out though.

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Pepper jelly is so good, think I’ll put it on the list & will use red peppers.

I have a Blenheim tree, although I didn’t fruit this year. I’d love to know what you get! It was a different kind of spring where I am.

My town made its name with onions and fruit during WW2

Dried onions: Basic ingredient in K-rations

Solano’s Rich Fruit Sections From: History of Solano County, California

tomato jam, we like this the nyt recipe and I found you a printable copy.

marinated garlic, we braise garlic cloves in grapeseed oil and a blend of Italian spices along with a red pepper in each jar. packed super tight in jars and sealed in the water bath.

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That looks good; Anybody want to talk about pectin? We may have discussed it on another thread.
But that was more about jelly, and not jam.

I’ve never tried to make my own but always have a jar of this product in the cupboard:

Thanks @Rooster - I wonder if the braising is what changes the usual concern about oil and garlic.