Use It Up Jam Recipe: Turn A Soggy Fruit Salad Into A Long-lasting Preserve

If you’ve never jammed soft fruit before, don’t stress – it’s really not difficult. Boiled down (forgive the pun), it basically amounts to:

Use It Up Jam Recipe

– Mix fruit with ¾ its weight in sugar. – Leave until it goes runny. – Heat until it goes jelly-like. – Seal it in a very clean jar.

Use It Up Jam Recipe

I’ve given an example of weights, but you can absolutely tailor this recipe to whatever you have. Just be sure to add ¾ (75%) as much sugar as you have fruit, and you’ll be fine (from a food-preservation point of view).

Use It Up Jam Recipe

Ingredients Basic: Soft fruit Sugar Lemon

Use It Up Jam Recipe

Example: 350g mixed raspberries, blueberries and mango 262g sugar to suit our fruit weight (350g x 75% ­­= 262g) About ½ a lemon’s worth of slices, 1-2 lemons is good for most quantities

Use It Up Jam Recipe

Wash the fruit in warm water, then trim off any manky bits. Chop larger fruit into similar-sized chunks and remove any pips from stone fruit. Lightly smoosh blueberries if using. Combine with sugar in large pot.

Use It Up Jam Recipe

Wash lemon, slice in half (if not already in slices), and squeeze juice into the pot, then add the leftover skin and pulp.

Use It Up Jam Recipe

Stir until well combined, cover and leave to macerate for a few hours. Macerating is the process of drawing the juices of fruit out using sugar, which turns the sugar into liquid. This allows you to quickly boil jam to a set – meaning the fruit is more likely to stay in pieces rather than turning to mush.

Use It Up Jam Recipe

Once the sugar has liquefied, put the pot on the stove and bring it to a rolling boil.

Use It Up Jam Recipe

Keep the jam boiling until it sets. A jam or jelly is at setting point when it gels enough to form a wrinkled skin when you push your finger through it.

Use It Up Jam Recipe

The simplest way to test this is to drip a bit of boiling jam or jelly on a cold plate, letting it cool for five minutes or so, then giving it a poke. If it doesn’t look gelled enough, continue boiling for another five minutes and try again.

Use It Up Jam Recipe

Being careful not to burn yourself on the hot, set jam, remove the lemon pieces. Pour into hot sterilised jars and seal while hot. Store in a cool dark cupboard, for potentially years before opening, then keep it in the fridge once you’ve cracked the jar.

Use It Up Jam Recipe

– Most berries and soft fruits can be frozen, so if only have a tiny bit of fruit on hand, just add them to a container in the freezer until you have enough to make a batch of jam. No need to thaw the fruit before macerating.

Notes

– If your jam just doesn’t want to set, rather than continuing to boil it until it becomes toffee, just jar it up runny and call it syrup! Excellent on ice-cream or yoghurt as a dessert.

Notes

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