Jam Making in Winter!!!!!

With the weather being so miserable outside, I often take the opportunity to do what I call “Inside jobs”.  You know the sort of thing, anything indoors which needs mending, rooms redecorated, cupboards cleared out.  The contents of the deep freeze is a good example, I have one shelf stacked with frozen soft fruit picked from the garden.  This frozen produce is used throughout the year in pies, crumbles and summer fruit puddings but just occasionally we have too much and by the beginning of the following year there is too much frozen fruit and not enough space.

 As you can see from the two photographs some frozen produce had been in the freezer for longer than I planned.  Once defrosted the fruit is safe to eat and to cook with. 

Not only did I have raspberries and tayberries which were grown and frozen in 2019 but I had frozen some blackberries in a plastic bag and failed to write a date on the bag. 

In our household, one of the food stuffs which I can guarantee will definitely get eaten is homemade jam and these three fruits will make a beautiful mixed berry jam.

Once defrosted I simply weigh the fruit including the liquid, make a note of the weight then tip it into the preserving pan; by the way I find it always defrosts to a semi solid/semi liquid state.

 

Then using a low heat the fruit and liquid is heated up and cooked through until the fruit is soft.

 Whatever the fruit and liquid weighed I then measure out an equal amount of preserving sugar.

I then add the preserving sugar to the cooked fruit and heat it over a gentle heat; I stir the jam mixture occasionally until all the sugar crystals have dissolved.  Once I am sure that no sugar crystals remain I turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a boil and boil it rapidly for about 5 – 7 minutes or until setting point is reached.

Lastly, I leave the jam to cool slightly, this gives me enough time to sterilise some preserving jars. I bottle the jam in the usual way and, of course, put wax discs on the surface to create a seal.

Delicious mixed berry jam to enjoy during the coming months – and a slightly emptier deep freeze.