North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

My experience with sugar-syrup recipes (jam, butter-cream frosting, lemon 
curd) is that the only way to boil it just right is to do it several times 
and learn what it looks and feels like when it's reached the right 
temperature.  Unless you make much larger batches than I it's very hard to 
get the thermometer fully in the juice/syrup, and even if you do, it's 
troublesome to have it sticking out from the smooth interior of the pot 
when you need to stir constantly.

I find all sugar syrup recipes to be unreliable until I have made them 
successfully 3-4 times, which is about what it takes me to learn to 
recognize when it's 'done'.

Once I master a particular recipe, though, I get consistent results.  I am 
especially fond of my red-currant jelly, which is made of red currant juice 
and sugar.  (nothing else)
...... Original Message .......
On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:33:32 -0500 Bob Randall 
<YearRoundGardening@comcast.net> wrote:
>I don't know the answer for sure, but based on years doing marmalade, it 
is possible you didn't get the boiling correct.  Many recipes say this or 
that about how long or much.  If you didn't learn this from someone who had 
it figured out, the best way is to use a "candy" thermometer which will 
tell you when you have reached the jelly stage.  If it still doesn't jell, 
then its pectin or sugar is the problem. But for certain if you didn't get 
it to the right temperature, you won't get it to harden just right.  If you 
do it too long, you will get something more like peanut brittle.  All three 
types taste good.
>
> Bob Randall
>On Aug 27, 2008, at 12:59 PM, Mark & Helen Angermayer wrote:
>
>
>This may be a question asked before, but was wondering what went wrong 
with our jam making?  Made a batch of peach jam and used 75% of the sugar 
that the recipe called for.  Used "Ball" brand pectin and followed all 
other instructions, which called for boiling the jam hard for one minute.  
Then hot packed the jam.  Problem is, the jam didn't set up as firm as I 
thought it should.  Although the flavor is excellent, it's the consistency 
is thinner than I'd like.  About the consistancy of thick honey.  Thought 
maybe using less sugar caused it not to jell.  But then we made another 
batch of jam, this time with some strawberries left over in the freezer.  
This time we used the full amount of sugar on the recipe.  Again the jam 
didn't firm up real good (although it's slightly firmer than the peach jam).
> 
>My question, what caused the jam not to jell well?  I know a lot of folks 
recommend Pomona's pectin, which is what I should have used, but we used 
what was available at the time.  Is Ball pectin a really bad product?  
Would it have helped if we would have boiled the jam longer?
> 
>Mark
>KS 
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___
Ginda