[littlelisa]

Hi everyone

It's summer here in the southern hemisphere and I've been learning how to make jam. While the jam is boiling, I usually skim off the foam that rises. Problem is, I end up with a couple of cups of jellyish fruit syrup, as only a fraction of the skimmed foam is actually scum.
Is it necessary to skim during the cooking process?
I have seen people mention leaving the skimming until after the cooking is done, and removing the scum then. Would this have a detrimental effect on the jam?
If you do skim, how do you avoid wasting all that syrup? (I am not enough of a fan of clear fruit jellies to use it as a spread or something - I'd rather use the lovely jam I'm making!!!)

Thanks!
Lisa

[grenhouse]

Hiya Lisa, Lucky you, -1 here and 16 inches of snow! 
It depends on the fruit as to how much scum you get on the top, however I never skim, I always add a large knob of butter into the pan as it comes to the boil, this is supposed to reduce the scum and always seems to have worked for me.

Steve

[Trillium]

My mother adds the knob of butter to her jams to stop scum forming but I notice it adds an extra taste I don't like.

No need to skim while the jam/jelly cooks. Wait until you take it off the heat and let it sit in the pot for about 2 minutes. This is long enough for the scum to start hardening a bit and is easily gathered with a spoon. Once gathered, you can then pour into jars.

[littlelisa]

Brilliant - thanks for these replies! I love getting exactly the reply I was hoping for :-)

[Kleftiwallah]

Ditto to Trillium. 

My Mam did the same with a knob of butter.  She always said that the scum on a crust of bread was the cooks perk for making the jam.    I have her old brass preserving pan.  It must be over a hundred years old by now Cheers,     Tony.

[catllar]

I made a batch of cherry jam yesterday and tried adding butter didn't seem to make a lot of difference - so I let it cool a bit and skimmed it off like Trillium.

As the jam is for home consumption, I don't normally bother skimming it at all. I can see that if you were showing or selling  it you'd need to fuss about a bit more though.

[Kleftiwallah]

Ah, but if you intend to show your home made jams/chutneys etc at the local village garden  & home produce and horticultural show. . . . .