North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Hélène Dessureault <interverbis@videotron.ca>]

Hi Mark,

I am more familiar with non cooking jams and jellies. However, I think it
should work fine with cooked jams.
Agar is a seaweed mucilagen and when completely melted with heat and cool
again to room temperature,  it then gels to the specific density of the
liquid in which it is integrated....
The sugar content or the pectin content of the fruit is not an issue, so you
can see the advantage if you want a jam with less sugar.
The agar does not add a taste or a quality to the jam, either than
consistance and a certain brilliance (glow) which adds to the appeal of the
colour and the jam. I don't know whether there is the same effect with
cooked jams but I don't see why not.
I know what you mean about the paste effect of thick apple pectin jams, as I
have seen this thick pasty effect before.
I am not sure, but I think that if you were to add too much agar agar to
your jam you might get this paste effect as well after a while (don't forget
that agar is a solid density to begin with). I have made layered
agar-yogourt-fruit cool summer dessers before (without recipes per se) and
ended up once with a thick jello like consistance in one of the layer.
This is new frontier and you have to experiment and, most of all, keep notes
as one tends to forget specific quantities from year to year.
Maybe you can tell us the results of your tests next season....
Agar agar is a fascinating product from the sea which deserves interest.
Hélène
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark and Piper" <piper33@verizon.net>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 8:14 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] jam making/white grape juice concentrates in place
ofthesugar


Hélène,
A couple of questions about your agar agar jams.

Storage: You wrote that you freeze fresh berries and make jam as needed. I
know that will result in very fresh taste. Is it possible to make good
quality canned jam using agar agar that will store withour refrigeration?
Maybe that would be cancel the advantage (fresh taste) of your no-cook
method.

Texture: How does the texture of agar agar based jam compare with pectin and
sugar based jams? One comment I have read about Pomona pectin based jams is
that they are easy to gel but the resulting jam has an odd paste texture.

-Mark Lee, Seattle

----- Original Message -----
From: "Hélène Dessureault" <interverbis@videotron.ca>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 6:44 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] jam making/white grape juice concentrates in place of
thesugar


Here's to all jam and jellies lovers.

I use agar agar to make all my jams and jellies. It thickens all fruits,
cooked or raw, regardless of the amount of pectine contained in the fruit or
the amount of sugar added. According to my reading the only exception to
compatibility is apparently kiwis and chocolate, for unknown reasons.

Here is my recipe for uncooked raspberry jam that has been declared an all
time best...!

Two cups of raspberry (fresh or frozen)
Two cups of sugar
Tablespoon of lemon juice
Three tablespoon of agar agar, soaked in a cup of water overnight. I slowly
simmer and stir it until all the flecks are melted down. (This mixture will
solidify again when it is left to stand and cool to room temperature.)

Method:
Mash the fruit
Add and mix sugar
Add lemon juice
Add melted agar agar while stirring.
Makes about 8 cups.
Pour into a few jars. Keep one in the fridge and freeze the rest.
Will keep easily 3 weeks in the fridge.

No mess, no fuss, adaptable to all kind of variations, such as apple jelly
with less sugar. Unlike pectine, agar agar will "take" regardless of the
quantity of sugar. You can drain the juice by cooking the apples, simmer the
juice with a little sugar to the required concentration  (with agar agar,
the criteria is taste and color, not the right combination of pectine and
sugar).

It works with every thing that I tried up to now, except that sometimes the
final product is a bit too thick or a bit too thin. I try to keep notes on
quantity of agar agar used to improve recipes from years to years.

Uncooked jams and jellies made this way taste like the fresh fruit. They are
hard to beat.
Agar Agar is extracted from sea weed and comes in powder, flecks or sheets
of transparent dried material. You can usually buy it at health food stores.

One final comment. What prompt me to write this note was the comment by one
member of the list who is using honey as a substitute for sugar. What a
shame. Honey is a wonderful food that looses most of its quality when boiled
extensively. It adds a brown colour to jams and imparts a strong flavor that
covers everything else.

I tried for years replacing sugar with honey and wasted a lot of efforts
making jams and jellies that were not very appealing.

I first used agar agar to replace gelatine in a cream and fruit uncooked
layer cake, one summer. The next year, I tried strawberry jam. I have not
used any gelatine, Certo, or commercial pectine ever since.

Hélène, north of Ottawa
Where it feels like Spring.


----- Original Message -----

From: "Rondi" <nafex@mokalive.com>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 2:53 PM
Subject: [NAFEX] jam making/white grape juice concentrates in place of the
sugar


> Hey,
>
> This brought up a question I've had for some time, but keep forgetting
> to ask.
>
>   I've noticed the at the grocery store that they are now selling jams,
> jellies and spreads that do not contain sugar, but are using white
> grape juice concentrates instead. So how is this done? I would love to
> know since it's costing me an arm and a leg to buy the stuff and I'd
> like to make my own flavors.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Rondi
> On Dec 11, 2006, at 11:00 AM, nafex-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
>
> > Traditional Sure-Jell and Certo pectin required large amounts of sugar
> > to ensure jelling, usually more in volume than the fruit juice itself.
> >  But now, low sugar pectins are widely sold, and we favor the Pomona's
> > brand which gives us a consistently good jell with very low amounts of
> > sugar -- less than half what would be used with ordinary pectin.
> > Pomona's pectin works by utilizing calcium as a catalyst to citrus
> > peel pectin.  However, the use of at least a moderate amount of sugar
> > is recommended because of sugar's natural preservative properties.  A
> > long boil of the juice is not necessary, other than to ensure that the
> > product is well sterilized before packing.
> >
> > It is possible to make jelly by boiling pure juice and large amounts
> > of sugar until the juice "sheets" on a spoon, but this technique is
> > very time consuming and energy wasting, and has not been used by most
> > jellymakers for about 50 years.  Use of pectin makes the process a lot
> > easier and faster, and produces a better product.
> Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
> Boldness has genius, power and magic.
>
> Goethe
>
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