What should homemade jam look like

Once you think that your jam has reached its setting point or has thickened, spoon a bit of the jam on the cold plate and tilt it vertically so the jam runs.

You are aiming for a slow descent, not a runny mess. You can also let the spoonful of jam sit on the cold plate for 30 seconds and then push it with your spoon or finger. TIP: Use a white plate so you can see the jam clearly. A darker plate or patterned plate may give you the impression your jam is set when it is not.

Use a candy thermometer to test the temperature of your jam. Take the temperature when the jam has reached a rolling, foamy boil. The jam will set nicely at that temperature. This is the most specific and least trustworthy method in my opinion. Lovely, sweet sugar, of course you gotta admit, she's pretty cute.

Incidentally, sugar is an essential part of what makes preserves, well, preserved. All of the microorganisms yeasts, mold, bacteria that cause spoilage need water to survive and proliferate.

When the water molecules are all bound up with the sugar, though, the nasties can't survive. So once the water and sugar have gone off to neck in a corner, the pectin is left by itself, twiddling its fibrous thumbs. Sure, it can see another sad, lonely, dejected pectin across the room, but it's just not that interested. Its whole outlook is so negative, know what I mean?

The answer here is to add something positive to get rid of that negativity, and one option is acid. In water, acid increases the concentration of positive ions. Those positive ions swim off to the negative pectin opposites attract after all , for an overall neutralizing effect. Once neutralized, pectin is suddenly willing to interact with other pectin, you know, chat, crack some jokes, maybe brush up against each other.

Next thing you know pectin has its hands in all sorts of places and some major bonding is taking place. Water and sugar should stop necking and take note because pectin is taking it to the next level Acid, by the way, also helps jams last longer: that low pH is inhospitable to the agents that cause spoilage.

Once we have the sugar to tie up much of the water and leave the pectin free to mingle, and the acid to give the pectin enough of a positive outlook to actually have the motivation to do it, we're almost there.

There's just one problem: There's still too much water, and it's just kinda gettin' in the way of things. This is where we enlist our third weapon: heat. When a jam mixture is cooked, water is escorted out through evaporation. And when enough water has evaporated with whatever's left still doing its thing with the sugar , the jam has finally arrived at its gel point. That means the pectin molecules are fully able to stick to each other and form a 3-dimensional web in which the remaining sugary juices are all held like water in a sponge.

After all this excitement, you'd think there'd be some elaborate process for determining the gel point. But there's no need to pull out the pH strips or the thermometer, because pinpointing the gel point requires one simple blunt instrument: a spoon. See, the truth is that the pectin web doesn't really solidify until everything cools down. That means it's tricky to tell whether you've achieved the gel point while the action is still hot and heavy.

Enter the spoon: Before you start your jam, set a plate with a few metal spoons in the freezer. Then, when the foam has subsided and the bubbles have slowed, place a small dollop of jam onto one of the freezing-cold spoons and let it sit in the freezer for 5 minutes. When you pull it out, the jam should feel neither warm nor cold.

If the jam has properly gelled, it will hold its shape pretty well when you tilt the spoon, neither running off too fast like a liquid, nor seizing up and not moving at all. If the jam is still too runny, just keep cooking it and performing the frozen-spoon test every 5 minutes until you achieve the consistency you want I used to keep 15 spoons in the freezer when I was first learning how to make jam—what can I say, I like to be prepared.

Now is the time to think ahead and get jamming. Top tips. Watch our video and learn how to test jam , then try our favourite fruity jam recipes:. A fruit cheese is a solid, sliceable preserve — perfect with cheese. Top tip. Try our step-by-step fruit leather recipe for tasty snacking, or get stuck into our sweet plumbrillo recipe for a twist on the Spanish classic.

Steeping fruits in alcohol or sugar syrup is a lovely way of preserving the essences of juicy summer fruits. Cordials and syrups can be diluted like a fruit squash. Quench your thirst with our best ever cordial recipes and bottle your favourite flavours:.

Blackcurrant cordial Raspberry cordial Rosehip cordial. Crack out your jars and get preserving with our favourite pickle and chutney recipes :. Back to Recipes Smoothies Autumn drinks See more. Back to Recipes Whole foods recipes Healthy dinners See more. Back to Recipes Vegetarian dinners Quick vegetarian See more. Back to Recipes Vegan storecupboard Vegan baking See more.

Back to How to Roast timer Conversion guides.