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Tasty Tuesday: Making jam with no added pectin

A couple of years ago I learned some fascinating things about fruit pectin.

1. Many fruits have enough natural pectin to set jam without adding commercial stuff. Plums are, perhaps, the very best fruit for making no-added pectin jam. Many other fruits, though, are also good. Blueberries make lovely no-added-pectin jam. The flavor really IS different and there is virtually no foaming when you don’t add commercial pectin. This is also one time when it actually helps to have some fruit that isn’t quite ripe. Some fruits don’t have enough natural pectin to thicken up by themselves.

I’ve always wondered how cooks “in the olden days” thickened the jams made with those fruits that lacked the pectin to thicken up. My answer came from my smallest son. He learned all kinds of valuable information about the “olden days” when he volunteered for several summers at the local living history ranch.

2. In the olden days, a lot of women made their own fruit pectin to add to jams and jellies. A docent at Rock Ledge Living History Ranch, taught the junior docents working for her how to make fruit pectin.

Miss Barber saved all the peels and cores from the apples that she had turned into applesauce. She put these peels and cores into a pan and barely covered them with water. She put the pan on the back of the wood stove and let it simmer half the day. She added water to keep things from drying out. By the end of the afternoon, she had a thick, gooey syrup in the pan. She poured everything through a piece of cheesecloth and into a canning jar. She water-bathed this jar of liquid pectin. It was ready to be used. When it came time to make jam, she used a couple of tablespoons of this apple pectin to help the fruit along in becoming jam.

Just a little historical trivia….

Last week we made blueberry jam and did NOT use little boxes of Sure-gel. I’ve made plum jam without added pectin, but this was a first for blueberry jam. It all happened because I got caught out in not reading directions first. I just blithely dumped in crushed blueberries and sugar and turned on the stove. Then I read the little instruction sheet in the Sure-gel box. Shoot. I wasn’t supposed to add the sugar until after the fruit and Sure-gel had done the rolling boil thing. So I switched gears.

It was time to do an experiment and try blueberry jam the old fashioned way. Here’s what I found:

No-pectin-added blueberry jam

Start with a really heavy, large stock pot. The heavier the pot is, the less likely you are to burn the jam. Remember that jam is mostly sugar and sugar burns easily. Crush your blueberries and add equal parts berries and sugar. I chose to cook up six cups of blueberries and six cups of sugar.

I brought it to a boil and then stirred it frequently, although not constantly. It takes too long to cook to be able to stir it constantly! I tried to keep the hot bubbly mixture cooking at a temperature that kept it boiling but not burning. I cooked the berries and sugar for at least 45 minutes, maybe a little more.

As the mixture cooks, you can see it starting to thicken, especially around the edges. There are a number of ways to tell how long to cook it.

Some websites recommend checking the temperature. At sea level, you need to get the jam up to 220°. (You can drop that temperature 2° for every thousand feet up to 4000, then 1° for the increment between 4000 and 5000 and an additional 2° for each thousand feet thereafter.)

A second way you can test if it has cooked long enough is to put a dab on a cold saucer and put it in the fridge to see if it gels up right away. That doesn’t seem to work for me though.

The third way, and the way that I prefer to use, is by taking a metal spoon, sticking it into the jam and lifting a spoonful about ten inches above the pan. Tilt the spoon and watch how it runs off. When it sheets off the spoon (when two drops form and run together) then it’s done. (I also checked the temperature and it was right at the right place.)

Then I poured the hot jam mixture into the sterilized jars and put on the lids and rings (also sterilized.) I turned them upside down immediately for fifteen minutes and set them on a towel to cool. After fifteen minutes, I turned them back right side up. Within a few hours, all the lids gave that musical little pop as they sealed.

Two interesting things about no-added-pectin jam that I found. First, there was no foam to skim off the top before pouring into jars. Second, there was a very slight taste difference. I can taste that added-pectin contributes its own slight bouquet to jam.

And hey, I saved buying that extra box of Sure-gel!

Here’s one more recipe. This is also for blueberries, but it works equally well for blackberries, raspberries, or strawberries, especially if you make sure that some of the berries are barely ripe. I like this recipe because it calls for a ratio of fruit to sugar that favors the fruit. So if you’re trying to cut back the sugar a little, this one will help.

No-pectin-added berry jam

This makes 3 jars of jam, a smaller batch.

Cook together in a large, heavy pan:

•6 cups ripe berries

•3 cups sugar

Cook over medium high heat for 35-40 minutes.

When jam is ready (it reaches 220° and sheets off the side of the spoon) add 1/4 c. lemon juice and cook a few more minutes. The jam will rethicken. Add 1 T. grated orange peel. Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

You can leave the lemon juice and orange peel out for pure berry flavor.

For the record and as a disclaimer, the USDA holds that the only safe way to can jam is to water-bath it. I, personally, flip the jars of boiling jam over and for ten or fifteen minutes and the flip them back, skipping the water bath. I feel comfortable doing this because I know that homemade jam flies out of my kitchen faster than any other substance on the planet. Truly, a batch of jam will last our family a couple of weeks. If your jam is going to sit around for several months, consider water-bathing it to be on the safe side.

Happy toast!

Barb Kelley

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