How to make jam

Everyone knows the taste of jam since childhood. Our grandmothers stocked up on them for future use to enjoy a sweet delicacy on cold winter evenings. But does everyone know how to cook it correctly?

How to make jam properly

Winter jam is a slice of summer in a jar. How nice it is on frosty winter evenings to open a jar of jam and remember the warmth and the sun. The right jam looks very nice. In a thick, transparent syrup, berries or ripe fruit pieces are evenly distributed. Although some craftsmen can cook tasty and healthy delicacy from zucchini, carrots or chestnuts. There is already someone in that much, but still there are general rules for cooking "summer in a bank".

1. First of all, you need to seriously approach the selection of fruits for jam. Give preference to berries grown in your area. This reduces the risk of preserving harmful chemicals instead of healthy fruits for the winter. Slightly unripe fruits are best suited for jam. If you take overripe, there is a risk of getting an incomprehensible mess. Also, it will not have a positive effect on the beauty and taste of the product if you use raw materials with signs of spoilage - rot spots, damage from birds or insects, crumpled sides.
2. The right dishes are very important in this matter. A copper, shallow basin is best suited. Make sure that the dishes are free of rust stains or green deposits. Enameled dishes are not suitable for the simple reason that everything in them most often burns. Which, of course, will spoil the taste of the finished product.
3. Before you start cooking, the fruits must be carefully sorted out. Remove leaves, crumpled berries, seeds and stalks. It is also good to rinse everything in clean water.
4. Properly prepared syrup is the most important thing in the preparation of this delicacy. The syrup is prepared like this - take an amount of sugar equal to the weight of the berries. If the raw material is 3 kg, then add 3 kg of sugar too. Plus, for every kilogram of sand, you need to add 200 g of water. Mix everything and bring to a boil over low heat. A good syrup will drain slowly from the spoon.
5. After boiling, pour the berries into the syrup. You can, on the contrary, pour the syrup over the jars with the berries already decomposed and boil the whole mass.

When cooking, the proportions must be observed. If you put less sugar than according to the recipe, there is a risk that the jam will ferment. You need to pack it in glass jars with tin lids. To prevent the jam from becoming moldy, the jars must be dry and thoroughly washed. Also, the storage area for rolled up cans should also be dry and well ventilated.

How to make jam five minutes

As the name implies, this method is fast, easy and allows you to preserve the maximum amount of nutrients in berries and fruits.

To prepare in a quick way, the berries must be washed, sorted out from twigs, seeds and dried, then transferred to a deep basin and covered with sugar, stir and leave for several hours so that the berries or fruits give juice. Then put on the stove and, stirring, wait until it boils. After that, boil for another 5 minutes. If the jam is liquid, boil it again. You can also add a little citric acid if the finished jam is sugary. Then mix thoroughly and boil again.

Spices can be added to the jam. For example, apples and pears go well with cinnamon. Orange - with cloves and cardamom.

How to make apple jam

When making apple jam:

1. Wash the fruits, cut into pieces, removing the middle. For especially delicate apple jam, the fruits can be grated on a coarse grater, after removing the peel.
2. Make sugar syrup by mixing sugar and water in proportion to 1 kilogram of sugar in 200 ml of water. Pour over apples. Simmer over high heat until the syrup thickens.
3. Or cover the chopped apples with granulated sugar and leave for a couple of hours. Then bring the mixture to a boil.
4. After the syrup is ready, pour the apple pulp into it and cook over high heat for 5 minutes. Then reduce and cook for another 5 minutes.
5. Pour into jars and roll up a tin lid.

If the jam is liquid - what to do

The easiest way to thicken the jam is to add gelatin or agar-agar to it. Also for this purpose, you can add grated apple pulp, currants, lemon juice or orange zest to the jam. These pectin-containing natural products will not only add the desired thickness to the jam, but also add zest to its taste.

So that in the future the jam does not turn out to be too liquid, pay attention to the quality of the berries. Raw materials harvested in rainy weather become overly juicy. And therefore, it will take more time to digest the excess liquid. The same goes for freshly washed berries. Let the water drain off before adding the raw materials to the bowl.

Tips if the jam is very liquid:

1. Remember to skim off the foam.
2. Do not use a saucepan for cooking this delicacy - dishes with low walls will help excess moisture to evaporate faster.
3. Do not keep the product on fire for 3 hours in a row. Better to cook it in 3 steps. Boil the raw materials, keep on the fire for 15 minutes. Then turn off the stove and cool the delicacy. Repeat 2 more times.

Mold on jam, what to do

If mold is found after opening the jar, then you can simply remove it and use the jam for food, since mold does not penetrate inside. You can also boil moldy jam with sugar, at the rate of 100 g of sand per 1 kg of jam. Keep on fire for 5-7 minutes. You should not roll up such jam again. Better rather than him eat.

Mold can occur if:

1. The jam is poorly cooked.
2. Not enough sugar was added.
3. The lids were screwed on while still hot. Condensation will form when the jam jars are still hot. And excess moisture is mold's best friend.
4. The jars were poorly cleaned or not sterilized.
5. The finished product was stored in a humid room with poor air circulation.

If the jam is fermented

• Fermented jam can be boiled with sugar and put in jars. Calculation of 100 g of granulated sugar per 1 kg of jam.
• Add water to it and cook the compote. Keep in mind that in this case, the raw materials should not smell strongly of wine.
• Add as stuffing to pie... When heated in the oven, all alcohol compounds formed will decompose.
• Make homemade fermented jam liqueur. Place suspicious cans closer to the battery. The bacteria will do their job on their own. It is better to remove the lid, and tie the neck of the jar with gauze folded in 1 layer. Usually the process of active fermentation takes 2-3 days. And about 2-3 more weeks for the product to mature. The readiness of the filling can be determined by the absence of bubbles and the clarification of the infusion.

It also happens that the jam is, on the contrary, candied. This is due to the fact that the recipe was violated during cooking and a little more sugar was put in than it should have. This problem can be solved simply by placing the jars in warm water and heating the water to a boil. The sugar will dissolve. To avoid this in the future, it is recommended to add a little lemon juice or acid to each jar.