This post is a copy/merge of two posts in the “Peach Time!” thread, which has more appropriately placed into the “Using fruit area”.
My 4th batch of peach jam was the best yet.
48 oz of very soft Carolina Gold peachs (bad spots cut out and skins removed)
32 oz sugar
2 teaspoons of pectin
This time I added a bit more sugar and didn’t smush it up quite as much, leaving bigger chunks. I think both adjustments worked well and I’ve gotten some positive feedback on this one. And more importantly, I like it better too
All measurements (unless noted) are by weight, not volume. I find it easier to measure weight- it can be done digitally with a single scale, while with volume requires various implements and there is always the question of air gaps, etc.
1.) Cooking it down-
No water added
Start on low heat to keep from burning it
Gently mushing early on releases enough juices to better distribute the heat
Keep cooking until all of it is soft enough to mush
I’m not sure how long this took, but I think it was something like 20-25 minutes.
Stopping myself from mushing too much (though it would be easy to do, once it is all cooked) helped keep good sized chunks.
I cooked with the top off, which allows some of the water to boil away
2.) Adding the pectin-
From the instructions on one of the pectins (not the one I used this time), it mentioned mixing 1/3 of the sugar with the pectin before adding it. I did that from habit, without realizing that this pectin doesn’t mention that in its instructions.
I used 2 teaspoons (by volume, as I didn’t have a good weight for this and it is pretty small) from a 4.7 oz container of Ball “RealFruit Low or No-Sugar Needed Pectin”.
After mixing the pectin in, I brought it to a boil.
Then mix in the rest of the sugar (which I was measuring while bringing the rest to a boil)
After mixing in the rest of the sugar, I bring it to a full boil for at least a minute
3.) Afterwards-
Ladle into jars, using a potholder on the hand holding the jar, as I’d rather be sloppy than burned.
Wipe the jar, then close it up and turn it upside down on the counter.
After all are done and I’ve taken a few minutes to clean up, I flip the jars back upright and label them.
Once they are cool enough to move, I clean the outsides better, then put them in the fridge, where I keep them for long-term storage.
It also occurs to me that I should mention that I’m no jam-making expert. Just someone who has been experimenting a bit and had a good result. I’m sure there are lots of ways to do this, many of them “better” (hard term to quantify).
Just this week I cracked open that jar of Niagara grape jelly you made me. My son has been gobbling it down in his PB&J sandwiches I pack him for school.
It looks to me like you are using the “tip method” which I too also do. Not supposed to be “Safe” yet I have done it for years with no problem. I sterilize my jars for 20 minutes in boiling water then add the jam and cover with sterilized lids. Tip over for
5 minutes and then stand upright.
I did do hot water bath processing for years and did a batch one day water bathed for 10 minutes and another batch with the “tip method”. Wow! What a difference in flavor. Those not water bathed had a much nicer fruit flavor. Those water bathed were good too but when tasted against those from the tip method I never water bath again.
While watching the famous chef Jacques Pepin on PBS last fall I was surprised he made strawberry preserves with his granddaughter and put it in sterile jelly jars and topped them with hot wax. I have not done that since I was a boy helping mother in the kitchen. I know this method is no longer recommended either for safety yet I find it odd that Gulf brand paraffin is still sold around my area in the canning section so plenty of others must still use wax to seal their jams.
I’m glad someone likes it- I’m not a big fan of grape jelly and neither of my kids seems to be either, so I’ve got a lot in the fridge and freezer. Over the last two years, I had 30-40 lbs of seeded grapes and not much to do with them, so I have a lot of jam. I also made juice, which I like a bit better.
I’m in the US, but I don’t get new lids. I just re-use anything I happen to have around, after running it through the dishwasher. Most are from back when I used to buy jam, so they are getting older, having been used a few times. The larger ones were from peanut butter and I’ve even used the really large ones from pasta sauce.
Once I make the jam, it goes into the fridge. I’ve had it a year or two later without issue. For large batches, I put some into a freezer. I haven’t used too much of it, but I recently defrosted a jar and it tasted fine to me.
I don’t like it super firm or runny, but somewhere in between.
I can’t upload movies, but maybe the animated gif will work:
That’s good to know- I’ve never used a water bath. My jam making is all very adhoc. The only thing I bought was a better pan (on Mrs G’s recommendation), as my old one tended to heat unevenly and burn. It was also harder to clean, so this was a good purchase. I don’t normally even use pectin for most of my jams. I’ve just made an exception for peach so far, but may try experimenting a bit more now. Many fruits have enough pectin on their own, and I often add currants as a pectin source when they don’t. Peach would need pectin, but I’ve got some currants in the freezer. Then, the only actual cost of the jam is the sugar (not real pricey…) and time.
Bob, that’s beautiful- I can almost taste it from here.
Here’s how my peach preserve recipe goes:
About 2 pounds (8 large) peaches
About 2 cups granulated sugar (adjust to taste)
Juice of one lemon, or a “glug” (or one whole orange, grated)
About 2 small or 1 largish, slightly under-ripe apple, grated
Heat to boiling and simmer with occasional stirring until set, about 40 minutes.
I almost never peel anything, and that helps the jam set because the peels are a source of pectin if the fruit is not too ripe. I do use a steam or a water bath method but now I’m tempted to do the tip method if I have a small batch. I didn’t even realize it was an option!
So you have both apple and peach peels in the jam? Doesn’t that give it a rough consistency?
One thing I did this year with my black currant jam is to blend it up after cooking and before adding the sugar, to give it a smoother flow. In the past, I roughly strained a lot (not all) of the seeds and skins out. Blending it all up together doubled my yield, but it did give the jam a harsher black current flavor. I still like it, as I guess I’ve acquired the taste for it, but my wife and kids didn’t, while they did like the strained version. Maybe I need to use more sugar to counter the harsher flavors.
Are you pitting the peaches and putting them in whole, or grating them as well?
Well, I grate the apples, and I never notice any texture from them; the peach peels (same as apricot) can clump up some but I don’t mind it. Once in a while I’ll push a bit to one side or find that it won’t spread on my toast too easily, but it still goes down pretty well!
Plum skins can be an issue. Seems like they get tougher and tougher as they’re cooked, and I’ve used a food mill or a strainer to get around that, but I hate doing that!
I’ve canned blueberries in juice, and made jam using Ponoma pectin, but without any sugar, the quality suffers greatly. Regular pectin, including the natural pectin in fruit, needs a certain amount of sugar to gel. Canned fruit needs sugar to help keep its texture and color.
If you want to avoid all added sweeteners, dried or frozen fruit might work better.
I cooked it a bit, and also needed to measure amount. I go by volumes. The recipe said 6 pounds, but only listed 4.5 cups of fruit. Well 4 pounds was at least 4.5 so used 4 pounds. I cook the jam in a Corningware dish (not pictured) for it’s ability to distribute heat evenly. It was my mom’s (who passed 31 years ago). So definitely old school stuff. The company is still in business.
That looks beautiful Drew! When I made jam with white peaches (White River) it wasn’t as good as that made from yellows (both Loring and Carolina Gold). But, while WR had some red in it and made a pink jam, it just wasn’t as flavorful. From how you’ve described Indian Free, I bet it doesn’t have that problem!
We will see, I didn’t have a chance to taste it. I have so many open jars right now, I have to wait (mine are all sealed properly and I don’t want to break seals till I use them on a regular basis). Indian Free in my opinion is more like a yellow with it’s acid kick. Yes i saw your comments on White River, too bad. The nectaplum was kinda ho-hum last year, and this year it’s very good. My wife said the best of this season’s stone fruit. Not my favorite, although I liked them a lot. It’s a white too. I think the low acid whites in general need to be grown in California where you can get the brix up. I have hope for the low acid yellows though, if I ever can get one of the Honey series.
I’ve made peach jam a few times this year. To me, it is OK, not great, but several people in my family like it a lot. I made 1 batch each of Loring (yellow) and Carman (white) peach jam earlier this summer.
Last weekend, my father came over with a 5 gallon bucket of peaches. He got 3 buckets of peaches off one relatively small tree, so it probably could have used more thinning. The brix wasn’t great at 10-11.
Given that he doesn’t spray them at all, I thought that they looked suprisingly good. He bagged about 20 of them, but the rest were mostly OK, even without any protection. I guess there aren’t a lot of fruit trees in his area and he has been pretty careful about picking up fallen fruit. Some had a strange skin problem, that I don’t remember seeing before. This issue is only surface deep, not like brown rot, as I thought on first glance.
Between the bucket (~30 pounds of peaches) and 5-10 Glo-havens he had from the fridge, we were able to make 4 batches of jam, out of ~21 pounds of peaches (after removing skin, bad spots, and pits).
Here’s a pic of the 19 jars I made (B1 vs B2 are the 1st vs 2nd batches).
The first batch was about the same as that I listed earlier in the thread (about 0.7X the weight of sugar as the weight of the prepared fruit, plus a couple teaspoons of pectin). I tried adding the juice from a large lemon into the second batch (my father’s idea). I was a bit hesitant, as it isn’t all my fruit in it, but I think it added a bit of kick to the result.
I haven’t made peach jam in quite a few years but back when I did I always felt it was too sweet. I would add lemon juice to give it a bit more flavor and try to use less ripe fruit but it was still too sweet for my taste. One thing I think I could improve on is the peaches that go into the jam. From this thread it sounds like Indian Free has more acid and flavor. What are some other peaches that are higher in acid? I may graft a branch or two and get back to making jam.
