How to make jam
What to make jam from
Jam is brewed from fruits and berries, the choice is mainly based on the season. Apricot and strawberry jams are brewed in May. In June, jams of currants (red and black) and cherries, strawberries are cooked. In the middle of summer, they begin to cook from raspberries, apples and plums. In August and early September jams are made from apples, lingonberries, gooseberries, hawthorns. As a rule, each of the stages of the fruitful season has its own "golden" time, when you can buy fruits and berries at a very low price in the market or in the villages. Especially if the harvest is good - they will give it away with a big discount, just to get rid of poorly stored products.
How much jam to cook
Depending on the type of fruit and juiciness, the preparation time can take up to a day, and the cooking time will be 15-25 minutes.
Whether to add pectin (agar-agar, gelatin)
The main "highlight" of the jam is its pleasant jelly structure, thanks to which the jam is moderately sweet and high in calories. Therefore, in general cases, pectin is useful.
Natural pectin is found in apples and apricots, gooseberries, plums and currants. However, when cooking, keep in mind that jam made from them without pectin in powder will need to be boiled for a rather long time and it will turn out to be very concentrated.
How to make jam - general rules
1. Wash the fruits and shake slightly in a colander to get rid of excess moisture. The bones, if any, should be removed.
2. Cover with sugar, and wait 1-8 hours, depending on the type of fruit, so that they give juice.
3. Prepare the gelling component: for example, the gelatin should be diluted with water and heated (the exact recipe depends on the type of gelatin).
4. Rub the fruits through a sieve, remove the skin, put the mixture in a saucepan and boil for 10 minutes.
5. Pour in the pectin, mix thoroughly, turn off the heat when boiling.
What to add to jam
First, when making jam, you can combine fruits and berries with each other. In any jam, citric acid and of course spices will be appropriate - star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves.
You can add nuts to the jam - almonds or walnuts. From dried fruits, you can add raisins or prunes.
Jam making rules
Jam differs from jam in that jam is dense, with the addition of gelling ingredients, a product with chopped or cut fruits, usually without cake.Select berries and fruits before cooking - dense, fresh, ripe fruits are useful.
2 minutes before the end of the jam, you can add a pinch (per 1 kilogram of fruit) of citric acid.
Jam is boiled with the addition of natural or powdered pectin, after stirring it in sugar or dissolving it in sugar syrup. Pectin is added during the last cooking of the jam or, if the jam is cooked in one step, then 5 minutes before the end of cooking. Jam is cooked in 1-2 runs for 20-40 minutes, depending on the type of fruit.
When cooking jam, fruits must be peeled and finely chopped.