Jam Making

[Dawgluver]

The point I'm making is that processing the finished jam by canning it isn't deemed necessary over here and I was wondering why it was done in the States.

I wondered if it was anything to do with the climate as you have hotter summers than we do.

Perhaps it's a pressure thing as I know some of you live a what we would consider extreme heights - the highest house in Britain is at 1,519 feet above sea level which is peanuts compared with where PF lives, IIRC. Our highest mountain, Ben Nevis in Scotland is a mere 4,409 feet which is a pimple compared with mountains in the Americas.

I think, as Steve pointed out, that canning here is a relatively new thing. I don't think it has anything to do with elevations or climate. We have a government agency that wants to make sure people are safe, and the methods used err on the side of extreme caution, even though probably very few people ever died of leaky jam. The FDA also don't allow for much variation from the TNT Ball Blue Book or other canning bibles. Most of us old enough survived our grandmother's open kettles, paraffin wax, and turning jars upside down without boiling baths, though I wouldn't recommend it now.

 

[Mad Cook]

Never heard of putting jam into a wet jar. Makes no sense to me what's so ever. It is definitely way to have a disaster on your hands. For my jams I ran the jars in the dishwasher take them out when they are dry, pure hot jam in and do not close until jams cools down so not to have evaporation inside the jar. I do use canning jars, but it is more out of convenience than anything else. My mother uses whatever jars she saves and she most of the times doesn't even covers them with leads. She uses some parchment paper and a robber band to hold it. I have had jams seating for 5 years never go bad, never had any mold, never *crystallized.

I wonder if it was just show and they skip the drying step.

I was always taught to cover while hot because you get a proper seal and there is less opportunity for mould spores, etc to get at the jam.

You can buy special clear cellophane circles which you fasten down with rubber bands but I prefer screw-on lids.Less of a fiddle and less chance of scalding yourself. Incidentally if you seal with the cellophane things they get a dish in them where the sealing process as they cool sucked the cover in

Some recipes over here use paraffin wax poured on the top of the jam to seal it from the air but although I know about it I don't know anyone who does it.

*Mostly crystallisation is caused by not dissolving the sugar properly before you let it start to boil.

 

[Mad Cook]

There's an article about her in yesterday's Parade magazine. It says she started the blog as a way to keep in touch with her mother after she got married. Her husband and his family have the 17th largest land holdings in the country. She's not my favorite, but it's interesting.
Home on the Range: Thanksgiving with Ree Drummond

.

I thought the children's faces were quite revealing in the family picture, especially the boy on her left.

 

[Addie]

My mother used the paraffin wax system. We got to chew the wax every time a jar was opened. For the green beans and asparagus she used the tall Mason jars with the rubber rings. I do remember that she always use to boil all the jars and turned them upside down on her special canning clothes. They were white sack cloths and she put them over a large cake rack that she had. After the canning was done, they were washed separately in bleach and then boiled for the next canning session. I'm telling you there was nothing cleaner than her canning supplies in this world. A germ wouldn't dare enter the summer kitchen.

She had two of those nasty sticky fly papers hanging at each end on the summer kitchen. Spiders, flies, mosquitoes and anything else in the bug world ended up on them.

 

[CharlieD]

I was always taught to cover while hot because you get a proper seal and there is less opportunity for mould spores, etc to get at the jam.

...

Do not know what to say. This is how my mother did it and before her, her mother, so I do it too. Works like a charm. Doesn't require a seal. Like I mentioned before my mother basically covers with a piece of parchment paper or even a simple paper where she can write what it is and when it was made. Only few month ago I finally finished a jar of raspberry jam/jelly that was made 5 years ago. It was seating in the cabinet, no refrigeration required after opening.