no pectin jelly/jam

[chewie]

I have a small wild plum thicket right near the house, and its overloaded this year. i made one small batch of jelly the normal way, with a box of pectin. but in looking thru google, seems jams can be made without this.

anyone do it that way instead? i have 2 5gal buckets full and buying all that pectin and making itty bitty batches? if i could do it without that's be awesome. i realize it may not be as thick, but i'm fine with that. even a few jars of syrup would be super.

and i gotta say, smuckers and welch's aint' nothing compared to this wild plum jam i made today. wow. i want to make many jars, and use some for christmas giving.

[kwagner21]

I don't know about plum but I've made raspberry without pectin. I know some fruit set without pectin and some doesn't but I don't know about plums. There is some way to use unripe apples in the jam for their pectin but you will have to wait for someone else to chime in with experience doing that.

[chewie]

the sites that i googled seems to use fruit that are larger, but wild plums are no bigger than a cherry tom., so pitting them isn't going to happen! so i cooked them on the stove in the water, then used a sieve to smoosh all the juice and some pulp, which removes the pit and skins. i thought pectin was also in/on the skins??

i also would like to do some with apples in in, plum apple jelly sounds pretty good. all this free produce must be used up!

how did you make your rasp. without pectin?? the sites i seen, looked like they put sugar on the fruit, let sit a while then added water amd cooked it down til it was thick enough. and how thick was your result?

[kwagner21]

Mummm that does sound good...I got some spare apples (the trees around here are bending they are so loaded)

[Mid Tn Mama]

Apples and crabapples have pectin naturally in them. That's why old homesteads always had a crabapple tree.

[COWS]

SWMBO says general rule is equal amounts of sugar and fruit. Cook it down until it is as thick as you want it. It gets thicker as it cools. Nobody in the family used pectin AFIK.

KEH

[calliemoonbeam]

You can cook jellies and jams without any pectin, you just have to cook them a lot longer. That's the way my grandma made jam back before anyone had heard of store bought pectin, lol. I think it gives it more of a full fruit taste too, maybe because of the long cooking time.

Here's the recipe from the NCHFP (National Center for Home Food Preparation): http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_07/plum_jam.html I don't know though, that sounds awful sugar heavy to me, unless your plums are really tart, or maybe I just don't like it as sweet. I usually use 12 cups of plums and 6 cups of sugar (a pound of plums is about 2 cups). I don't use any lemon juice, but that may not be considered safe - use your own judgement. I don't use any water either.

I usually halve my plums and stir them with the sugar and let them sit for about an hour, stirring a couple of times, to let the sugar melt and the juice to start seeping out of the plums, but I don't know if that's necessary either, lol, just my grandma's way of doing it.

I don't know temperature-wise, but you need to cook it until it reaches "sheeting" stage. If you dip a spoon into the cooking mixture, turn it sideways and it slides off in one solid sheet, it's ready. If it drips off or runs off in separate little rivulets, it's not done yet. The trick is to get it to that sheeting stage.

I've also heard and read that they will tend to set up better if you use a small portion of underripe (not green, just not fully ripe) fruit mixed in with your fully ripe fruits, but haven't done this myself so I don't know. I've never had any trouble with mine not setting up unless I undercooked it.

Wild plum jam is my favorite, I could practically eat my weight in it, lol! Good luck!

[vicker]

I made wild plum jam this year with no additional pectin. Mine turned out a little bit runny, but that was because I only cooked it till it reached 218f when it should have cooked till it reached 220f. I thought, "well, what difference can 2 degrees make?", and evidently it makes just enough difference to make your jam a little runny. I've made it before when it turned out right.
Wild plum jam is the best jam there is!

[michelleIL]

At the restaurant I worked at for a little while, we made strawberry jalapeno jam without pectin. It always turned out fine!

[chewie]

Originally Posted by vicker

I made wild plum jam this year with no additional pectin. Mine turned out a little bit runny, but that was because I only cooked it till it reached 218f when it should have cooked till it reached 220f. I thought, "well, what difference can 2 degrees make?", and evidently it makes just enough difference to make your jam a little runny. I've made it before when it turned out right.
Wild plum jam is the best jam there is!

please oh please tell me how you did it?!! yes, the jam i have made so far is crazy-good. one batch is kinda runny so i'll call that one 'topping'. hehe. but really, it'll be super on french toast, etc. or ice cream. yum. but i do want some that is a bit more jelly-ish.

i have sooo many plums right outside my door, and sent hubs to get more jars.

i have one pot full of plum 'water' and pulp, i cooked the plums til they were soft and then put them thru one of these.http://www.amazon.com/Mirro-9605000A...ds=fruit+press only mine is stainless steel.

then i put in sugar, can't remember how much as i did this last night. i would guess 7-8 cups puree and 6 of sugar. i tossed in a shredded apple too, as i see some do that for the pectin apples have naturally. and i have lots of apples. so i started cooking it, a low boil/hard simmer. thought it was looking like it wasn't going to happen so i shut it off and went to bed, figuring hubs can get pectin when he gets more jars in town today.

so what should i do now?? or did i not start them right for not using the box of pectin powder?

[d'vash]

I use chia seeds, in place of boxed pectin.

[unregistered5595]

220 degrees F--I made some lime honey marmalade, this is the temperature you need for no added pectin jams. (as was said before)

[karenp]

I don't like the texture of commercial pectin. When I do peaches I just cook it until it's thick and call it peach butter. If you are making strawberry preserves, the strawberries with a little green in the tips have pectin in the and will help thicken it.

[vicker]

Chewie, I did it just as you described, except I did not blanch the fruit. I just mashed them with my hands and forced it though a colander. I then added just enough sugar to balance the tartness and simmer, stirring constantly till it reaches 9 degrees f above the boiling point of water at your location. I know it is easier to use the spoon method, and stop when it reaches the sheeting point, but I never mastered that.
Ps that's just like the colander I used, except the stick is long gone. I just used my hands.

[oneraddad]

Originally Posted by kwagner21

I don't know about plum but I've made raspberry without pectin. I know some fruit set without pectin and some doesn't but I don't know about plums. There is some way to use unripe apples in the jam for their pectin but you will have to wait for someone else to chime in with experience doing that.

I've also done raspberry and it turned out awesome without pectin

[DW]

Lime honey marmalade...sounds wonderful!!! Please share.

[unregistered5595]

Originally Posted by DW

Lime honey marmalade...sounds wonderful!!! Please share.

Limes and Honey and a pinch of baking soda (that is the ingredient list)

Limes were on sale, so maybe 9 limes. Peel, and boil the peel for a few minutes, strain, add more water, boil, strain, and do that one more time.
The inside of the limes--cut them up in the food processor.

Measure the lime juice, pulp and peels (maybe 4 cups). Add 4 cups (an equal amount) of honey and a pinch of baking soda. Boil and stir until it reaches 220 and the syrup is sheeting off the spoon (instead of 2 drops off the side of the spoon, they sheet together).

Water bath can or your preferred method. Thanks for asking. It is bitter and sweet and we like it.

[YounGrey]

Yes this can be done with apples because of the high pectin levels. Take this recipe using Crab Apples as an example:

Crab Apple Hot Pepper Jelly

http://homesteadingrecipes.blogspot....jelly.html?m=0


http://homesteadingrecipes.blogspot.com/?m=0