Simple tips to follow for making perfect jellies and jam

Making jam is a rewarding way to enjoy the labours of having your own fruit tree or simply enjoying the seasons finest flavours. To make jam, you must master working with pectin and acid so your jam gels and comes out at the right consistency. Here are some helpful tips to follow when making jam.

The easiest and most popular way to preserve fruit is to turn it into jam. Jams, conserves and preserves are made with whole or cut fruit, and jellies with juice strained from fruit and boiled with sugar. Sugar is the preserving agent in jam and jelly making and since most fruits are high in sugar to begin with, they are natural candidates for preservation in one of these forms.

• The best way to ensure good results is to follow a recipe and measure all ingredients carefully.
• Fruit should be as fresh as possible.
• For proper gelling of a sugar-preserved product, three ingredients must be present in the correct proportions: sugar, pectin (the gelling agent) and acid.
• Many fruits have enough pectin and acid for gelling, but some may need additional amounts.

Pectin is concentrated in the seeds, skin and core of fruit and so is most readily extracted if the fruit is sliced or chopped. Barely ripe fruit is most suitable, as the pectin content is highest at that stage; fully ripe and over-ripe fruit has a lower level of pectin and loses some of its flavour when cooked. A mixture of ripe and under-ripe fruit usually produces satisfactory results when making jam or jelly.

• To test for pectin, mix five millilitres (one teaspoon) of liquid (as free as possible of seeds and skin) from the cooked and unsweetened fruit with 15 millilitres (one tablespoon) of methylated spirits. (Caution:do not taste the mixture, as methylated spirits is poisonous.)
• If the mixture clots into a single, jelly-like lump, there is enough pectin; if not, extra pectin will be needed.
• Pectin is available from supermarkets in liquid or powdered form, or you can make your own from apples.

Acid is the third essential requirement for successful gelling of fruit. As well as helping to extract pectin (the gelling agent) it also brightens the colour of the jam and helps prevent crystallization of the sugar. Tart-flavoured fruits such as plums, most soft berry fruits, quinces, citrus fruit and red, black and whitecurrants have high levels of acid. Other common fruits such as apricots, cherries, figs, melon, peaches, pears, strawberries and sweet varieties of apples are low in acid.

• To check the acid level of a fruit, compare its taste to that of a mixture consisting of 45 millilitres (three tablespoons) of water, 15 millilitres (one tablespoon) of lemon juice and seven millilitres to ten millilitres (1 1/4 to twoteaspoons) of sugar.
• If the fruit is less tart than this mixture, you will need to add acid, either as lemon juice (30 millilitres or two tablespoons per 1 1/2 kilograms of fruit) or ascorbic acid (seven to ten millilitres, or 1 1/4 to twolevel teaspoons, available in powdered form from pharmacies) before the fruit is cooked.

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