[cathy81walking]

Afternoon jammers - advice needed please!

I have a goodly quantity of frozen raspberries and am planning to set aside some time this weekend to jam them

I see from Vals expert book that I should up the quantity of fruit by 10% to allow for the loss of pectin, but are there any other tips for the perfect red stuff?

I am still picking small quantities of rasps (that seem to go 'furry' within half an hour of bringing them into the warm house*) - could I put them with the frozen ones or are they best kept separate

* - ok, maybe a bit of an exaggeration

Thanks all

[janet12000]

My Mum uses something called 'Certo' when she makes jam out of frozen fruit.

[Val H]

Certo is liquid pectin. I was going to say that Raspberry is one of the fruits that, once frozen and de-frosted, I have problems in getting a good set. If it fails the pectin test, I'd be tempted to use Jam Sugar (the one with pectin added), liquid (Certo) pectin or a sachet of dry pectin (Silverspoon). Alternatively, use homemade pectin stock (there should be plenty of cooking apples around at the moment).

[New shoot]

Hi Cathy - I freeze surplus rasps to make Raw Raspberry Jam, which is a really old recipe I believe and really easy.   

You need equal weights of sugar and fruit - I don't bother with preserving sugar but do sometimes chuck the juice of a lemon in if I have 1 handy

Put the sugar in a dish in a low oven to warm
Put the rasps in a preserving pan and warm slowly until juice runs
Chuck sugar in and keep warming over low to medium heat until jam just reaches boiling point - switch the heat off at this point - you are done
Put into sterilised jars

Is quite a soft jam and won't keep forever, so I make in small batches from the freezer as and when. Keep in the fridge once opened, but the taste is out of this world so you won't have a problem with using it up 

 

[cathy81walking]

Thanks everyone - some great advice there!   

Sorry wasn't around to thank you sooner, my pc lost the driver for the wireless card - grrrr  no internet = pain in the proverbials!

Pectin or jam sugar added to my list - not a very good crop from my bramley this year, so already used them up with some blackberries (mmmmm!  )

[titch]

I used Val's recipe (from the book) for raspberry jam and used frozen  raspbs - seemed to set ok (it did burn a little  :blink: but it tastes ok)

i added a little apple to the second batch i made to avoid cooking it for quite so long second time and that set good too - without burning also

[cathy81walking]

Perfect!  Made 10 jars (of varying sizes thanks to all the family saving jars for me ) of really lovely jam which set beautifully  !  Some are destined for Christmas pressies and the rest for ME!!

Thanks for all the great advice everyone    !!