Sunday, July 27, 2008

Things happen for a reason.........Raspberry Jam.

I have been thinking about making raspberry jam as one, we love raspberry jam, and two, I have seen other people making it on their blogs and thought the photo's looked really good. A couple of things have been putting me off. I have an invisible sign on my fore head which says "EAT ME", only mosquito's can see it, and it makes raspberry picking totally miserable for me. The second thing is the price. To be fair I have no idea how much it costs per pound to pick your own raspberries, but figured it could be as cheap to just buy the jam, and we only go through one pot of jam a month.

So on Saturday while I was in A & P, I stumbled upon a lot of raspberries that were all reduced to 99 cents per container. I decided that this was a sign from above, and ended up buying 11 containers of them.



I bought a box of Bernardin Liquid Pectin which had two pouches in it and the recipe was this:

4 cups prepared raspberries
6 1/2 cups sugar
1 pouch liquid Pectin
1/2 tsp butter



Now I seem to have more jam than specified in the recipe? Also my jam seems to be separating? Anyone have any ideas why my jam is separating? I did the recipe twice so in theory I should only have 6 500ml jars, I have 8, plus a bowl??? I followed the recipe to the letter. I pray and hope this sets, otherwise I will have a lot of raspberry syrup!!!



Oh and half of the jars, have wax seals and plastic cellophane tops from England, that I had in my drawer, as my metal lids had rusted?

They do look good though.

Update: The jam seems to have set.

8 comments:

The Southern Mom said...

Looks really good! Glad they set, 'cause the only idea I'd have had would have been that you didn't cook it long enough. I've had that happen before...but I used it anyway!

Niki said...

don't know why you ended up with more...unless you measured the fruit after you crushed it right?

also about the separating, if you mean fruit from juice, it requires more stirring, at least a full 5 - 7 minutes continuously after you've added everything into it. That usually prevents separating.

Hope this helps :)
Niki

Niki said...

You should measure the fruit after you've crushed it.

As far as separation, after the full rolling boil for one minute, then add the pectin then remove from heat and stir continuously for at least 5 minutes to prevent separation.

Hope this helps Gill :)

PS I use Certo liquid pectin and have always had very good results, maybe next time switch to certo?

Have a great Sunday!

Lib said...

Hi Gill,
If it doesn't thicken as it cool, you could use it for pancake syrup etc. This happened to me one yr. so we used it as syrup.
Hope you have a wonderful day!
Blessins',Lib

Gill - That British Woman said...

I made the last batch this morning and I stirred them for a bit longer, and it didn't separate, so I am guessing that was the problem.

Anyhow, I got 11 jars of jam, plus 1 bowl of jam that I'll keep in the fridge. So that will last us probably until next year.

I paid $11 for the raspberries. $2.99 x 2 for the pectin, but I have one pouch left. The sugar I bought on sale a while back for around $2. I bought another dozen jars, for $9 + taxes. Only used three of those though.

So all in all I think they ended up costing me less than $2 a jar to make, which wasn't bad.

Leanne said...

Oh yum Gill....looks very good! I could only dream of finding raspberries that cheap here. Enjoy!

Theresa @ Take A Sentimental Journey said...

The jam looks so-o-o-o good .Put the coffe on , I'm comin with the hot biscuits ! Yummy !

Jasmine's Journey said...

mmmmm.That looks good. I always wanted to get into canning but never did.

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