How to make jam correctly. In what container to cook jam at home - review and choice of the best option I want to know the recipe for how to cook jam

In what container should you cook jam so that it doesn’t burn, it turns out tasty, aromatic, healthy and can be stored in the pantry or cellar for a long time?

You need to choose taking into account the material, shape and volume. The type of berries and fruits used for preparations plays an important role in the choice. If different options are suitable for sweet apples, then for currants and cherries with a high acid content you will have to limit yourself to only certain types. Learn the theory to make the right purchase.

Shape and volume of containers for making jam

In large quantities, delicate berries will be crushed, so experienced housewives never prepare 6-10 kg of jam. The more delicate the main ingredient, the smaller the portion should be. It is advisable to cook strawberries, wild strawberries and raspberries maximum 2 kg, and apricots, cherries, currants and plums - 3 kg each.

For a small portion of jam, a container with a volume of 4-4.5 liters is enough. If you like to make blanks in large batches, look for a six-liter container. It’s better to spend more time on two batches, but prepare delicious preparations for the winter.

The correct utensils for making jam should be shallow but wide- according to the type of pelvis. In such a container, excess moisture will evaporate faster, and the pieces of fruit will not be damaged, they will warm up evenly and are soaked in sugar syrup. Tall pots and shaped dishes with the bottom and top much narrower than the sides are not suitable.

Lids are not used during the cooking process, but they can be useful at the stage when the berries are covered with sugar or jam for several hours and infused in syrup. But if a suitable container does not have a lid, it doesn’t matter, you can cover it with a towel or choose another lid.

Handles make it easy to turn the jam on the stove and remove it from the oven. If they are not there, then there should be a neck that you can grab with your hands using oven mitts.

Ideal utensil material for jam

When choosing the right container for making jam, it is important to take into account the specifics of the recipe. There are methods of cooking in one step, and there are recipes that require heating three times with infusion in between boiling. If you cannot leave the jam in the bowl overnight, you will have to pour it into a different pan each time.

Copper basin - a classic of the genre

In ancient cookbooks, you most often find recommendations for choosing copper utensils for jam. This was passed down from grandmother to granddaughter. Advantages:

Copper has high thermal conductivity, so basins and cups heat up quickly and evenly.
It is easier to control the temperature in copper cookware, as it cools quickly after turning down the heat or turning off the stove.
Copper has natural antiseptic and antibacterial properties, killing E. coli, salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus even without high temperatures.

However, today they look at copper differently and it is impossible to say that a copper basin is the best choice for preserves and preserves. During heat treatment, copper ions react with acids, destroying vitamins. In low-quality kitchen utensils, copper oxides that are hazardous to health may enter the food during cooking.

To prevent oxidation, tinned copper bowls with an internal coating should be used for heat treatment of fruits and berries. Most often used for coating tin- metal to be restored. Not long ago, manufacturers learned to coat copper with stainless steel. This one is not afraid of acids. But all copper products require careful handling and careful washing.

The price of copper basins and cups is several times higher than similar ones made of other metals. Therefore, it is not advisable to buy copper utensils for making jam. Brass basins made from a copper-zinc alloy are cheaper. If you inherited copper utensils, make sure that the coating is intact and, if necessary, have it repaired.

Stainless steel - a modern approach

Utensils for making jam made of stainless steel meet all safety requirements and are considered the best of all those considered for cherries, currants, apricots, cranberries. Stainless steel is a completely inert material that does not oxidize and does not react with products.

A stainless steel basin is not afraid of contact with acids, so it is suitable for making jam from sour berries and fruits in several stages. You can sprinkle the berries with sugar in it, leaving them in this form for several hours without any risk or fear. Useful substances and vitamins in stainless steel products are more likely to be preserved, but during heat treatment they, of course, partially disappear.

Matte and polished utensils are made from food grade steel. This does not affect consumer properties. A matter of taste. Polished looks stylish, but water stains may remain on the surface if you do not immediately wipe it dry.

It is more important to pay attention to metal thickness, especially in the bottom area. A thin bottom is not suitable for jams and jams, and especially for long-term cooking. The maximum thing you can use thin-walled products for is preparing “five-minute” strawberries, wild strawberries, currants, cherries and other berries that do not require long cooking.

There are basins on sale with a multi-layer bottom made using capsule technology. This bottom consists of several types of metals, which makes heating more uniform, protects against deformation and extends the life of kitchen utensils.

Aluminum - rules of use

It is better not to choose aluminum utensils for making jam, since this metal tends to react with acids and oxidize. This interaction leads to harmful substances entering the product.

However, many housewives cook preserves and jams in aluminum basins, observing the following precautions:

Choose aluminum cookware for cooking fruits and berries with low acidity - apples, figs, peaches, cherries, plums.
Use aluminum exclusively for stovetop cooking. Cover the berries with sugar and leave to infuse before heating in another pan.
Stir the mixture constantly to prevent the contents from burning.
Avoid jam recipes that require prolonged heat treatment and thickening.

Review of products from online stores

This short review will help you get a good idea of what the utensils for home-made jams, marmalades, confitures and other fruit and berry sweets for the winter look like.

The stainless steel jam bowl from the French company Mauviel has a bottom diameter of 36 cm, which is ideal for the home kitchen oven. The height of the walls is 12 cm. The inner surface is matte, the outer surface is mirrored. Two comfortable handles. The dish is ideal for jam from cherries, cranberries, currants and other sour berries.

A copper basin with a volume of 4.5 liters is suitable for small portions of fruit and berry preparations. The bottom of the pan is smaller than the diameter of the top, which speeds up boiling, but requires stirring.

The inexpensive Kalitva jam bowl from a domestic manufacturer is made of aluminum. Suitable for quick one-step cooking. Best used for sweet fruits. Volume – 12 liters. Convenient for preparing fruits - washing, cutting, sorting the crop. The large bottom diameter is not suitable for all slabs!

A 3-liter brass basin with a removable wooden handle is suitable for home cooking on any stove except induction. The long handle is convenient for shaking the contents so that the syrup evenly covers the pieces of fruit and berries.

Be sure to check the cost of goods in different stores. Even products with the same article number may have different prices. Products from European manufacturers are always more expensive than domestic and Asian ones. Russian brands have many good offers.

There is no point in buying a special basin if you plan to prepare it once. Using the theoretical knowledge you have acquired, choose in which container it is better to cook the jam from the existing one.

Jam is not just a traditional delicacy, but also an excellent opportunity to replenish yourself with vitamins all year round. However, only properly cooked jam will retain all the beneficial properties of berries and fruits. Here are the basic subtleties of preparing a healthy dessert.

Choosing dishes to make jam correctly

For our purposes, a large and deep container made of copper, stainless steel or aluminum is suitable. The traditional vessel for making jam is a large copper basin. Pay attention to the inner surface of such kitchen utensils: there should be no plaque on it - a product of metal oxidation, which in no case should get into food. You should not take enamel dishes: a culinary masterpiece in it is likely to burn. Do not choose containers that are too large - large dishes will require longer cooking times, which will not have the best effect on the result. The optimal option is a volume of two to six liters.

How to make jam correctly - choosing fruits and berries

The main component of the jam must be absolutely fresh and free from any flaws, be it stains or bruises. Ideally, these are fruits straight from the garden, but store goods should, if possible, be of local origin. If berries and fruits are unripe or overripe, they are not suitable for jam. Also pay attention to the smell of the fruit: it will determine the aroma of the finished product.

How to make jam correctly - preparing fruits and berries

We sort the berries, removing unsuitable ones, wash and clean them. Wash currants, raspberries and strawberries again after peeling. To wash the berries, use cold water, keeping the product under the tap for about 2 minutes. or by washing it in a colander. Leave the berries to dry in a sieve for 15 or 20 minutes.

We prepare packaging containers for making jam

We take jars from 0.5 to two liters and wash them thoroughly. Preferably with a good detergent, such as soda ash. Rinse the jars with boiling water and turn them upside down to drain the water. Place the container in the oven to dry completely. By the time of packaging, the jars must not only be dried, but also warmed up.

Preparing syrup for making jam

Pour sugar into a cooking vessel and fill it with water in the ratio of 1 kilogram of sugar - half a glass of liquid. Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring the sugar until it dissolves. When the mixture boils, cook it for one or two minutes. The jam base is ready if it is thick enough. Only with this syrup consistency the berries are not deformed while they are boiling.

Combine syrup and berries

Carefully pour the berries into the liquid set over medium heat. The water should completely cover the berries. Stir them into the syrup, shaking the bowl in a circle. Keep it stirred for three to four hours so that the berries absorb the syrup, otherwise they may wrinkle and boil.

Cook all the ingredients

We periodically remove foam from the surface - the reason for the souring of the future product. We monitor the fire - it should be uniform. To prevent the jam from burning, carefully turn the dish and mix the berries. Before the end of cooking, the boiling becomes slower, the foam collects towards the center, and the berries do not tend to float to the surface. A drop of finished jam has a thick consistency and does not spread. As soon as we detect these signs, we immediately turn off the heat to avoid overcooking.

Cook the jam in two or three stages for 10-15 minutes, cooling for two to three hours. The total cooking time should not be more than half an hour. If the syrup is well absorbed into the fruit or berries, you can reduce the cooking to one stage lasting 40 minutes.

Summer is the time to stock up on aromatic northern berries, so that in case of a cold or bad mood, put a jar of raspberry jam or lingonberry jam on the table. We figured out how to make jam so that it turns out delicious. At the end of the text there are three simple recipes.

How to choose a vessel for making jam?

It is advisable to choose a copper pan or basin. Copper is ideal for making jam because it distributes heat evenly. But if there is no such pan, then any with a thick bottom will do. It is better to choose something large in volume so that the berries do not escape during the cooking process. You may also need a wooden spoon for stirring and jars into which you will pour the jam.

How to store jam?

It is best to store jam in small glass jars with a screw-on lid (the lids should be new each time). 250 grams is the ideal size, there will be enough jam for a week or two and it will not have time to spoil.

To prevent jam from turning into wine, be sure to sterilize jars and lids. It will take you 30 minutes, but you will be sure that nothing will spoil. The procedure is actually not very complicated, especially if you have a dishwasher. Place the jars and lids in the dishwasher on the hottest cycle, but without detergent. Or place the still wet jars and lids in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. If you prefer traditional methods, boil the jars and lids in a large saucepan. Remove the sterilized jars and lids with tongs and place them on a clean towel to dry.

How to choose berries and sugar for jam?

Very often I use overripe berries and fruits in jam, but this is not the right choice. Strong berries contain the most pectin, a natural thickener. If you want the jam to be thicker, then choose these berries and fruits. The least pectin is in strawberries and peaches, the most in currants, apples and plums.

Sugar is the main preservative for jam, but you can choose absolutely any sand. Traditional recipes call for taking a kilogram of sugar per kilogram of purified product, and then whatever you like. For example, in a recipe for raspberry jam you need to do this, but in a blueberry jam it is better to add a kilogram of sugar to two kilograms of berries. At the very end of cooking, you can add one or two tablespoons of lemon juice to activate pectin and preserve the taste of fruits and berries.

How to make jam: basic steps

Jam, jam, jam, marmalade, jelly - all these are different ways of preserving fruits and berries, vegetables, nuts and even flowers. When cooking jam, the ingredients tend to retain their shape; jam or confiture - boil over. Marmalade is a jam made from citrus fruits, most often oranges. Jam is puree boiled with sugar. There is also raw jam - in it the ingredients are ground with sugar. And also jelly - for example, from red currant berries.

Once you have decided what you want (jam or jam), start cooking:

For jam, it is better to first boil the sugar syrup in a one to one ratio, and for jam, cover the raw materials with sugar for 20 minutes, or better yet, overnight (this will be faster).
After boiling, you need to cook the resulting substance for 40-50 minutes over high heat so that the water evaporates faster and the pectin begins to work.
At the end of cooking, do not forget to skim off the foam - some people do this all the time, but in general, once, at the end of cooking, is enough. The foam must be removed so that the jam remains transparent.
Pour the hot preserves or jam into the jars, leaving one inch to the top of the jar. Screw the lids on, but not all the way, to prevent the jars from bursting.

How to make jam? Three recipes for Karelia

Raspberry jam

Sort out the raspberries and pour them into a bowl by the glass, sprinkling with sugar. For one glass of berries - one glass of sugar. After this, leave the berries for 2-3 hours. Then put on low heat for 40 minutes until the juice from the berries has soaked up all the sugar. Increase heat to medium and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until all sugar has dissolved. Don't forget to stir and skim off the foam. The jam is considered ready when the foam stops coming out.

Redcurrant jelly

For this recipe you will need a juicer or a little patience. Red currant berries need to be thoroughly washed, sorted and juiced. The easiest way to do this is with a juicer, but if you don’t have one, you can grind it using a sieve or crush it in gauze. We still have juice and “cake” from the berries (by the way, it can be used for compote). Add sugar to the currant juice in a 1:1 ratio and cook for about 15-20 minutes. Don't forget to stir constantly and skim off any foam.

Gooseberry and orange jam

Wash and sort all the berries thoroughly; it is advisable to cut off the gooseberry “tails”. You will need approximately 900 grams of gooseberries, 1.2 kg of sugar and two oranges. Remove the seeds from the orange, grind together with the zest and gooseberries in a blender or pass through a meat grinder. Then stir this mass with sugar, put on fire, boil for 7-10 minutes. Leave the jam for 5-6 hours in a cool place, and then boil again for 7-10 minutes. After this, you can pour the jam into jars.

Before we start making jam, I want to tell you a few tricks that will be useful to you in the process of making jam.

1. Before making cherry or sweet cherry jam, you need to soak the berries in salted water, at the rate of 100 g of salt per 10 liters of water, this will get rid of worms if they are there.

2. The ratio of cherries and sugar is 1:1, you can use 1 kg of cherries for 800 g of sugar or 1 kg of berries for 0.5 kg of sugar, adjust it yourself.

3. Instead of lemon juice, you can add a pinch of salt to the jam, this enriches the taste, and the salt is not noticeable.

4. If you plan to store the jam for a long time, you need to add jam gelling powder, or a handful of green gooseberries.

5. In order to avoid foam when cooking jam, you need to add 1 tbsp. butter, the foam will disappear. Butter will not affect the quality of the jam.

6. To preserve color, add 1 tbsp. lemon juice.

Recipes for cherry jam with and without pits

Five-minute cherry jam with pits

We need:

1 kg cherries
800 g sugar
5 g gelatin for jam

Preparation:

1. Wash the cherries and cover with sugar, leave for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Add gelatin, stir and place on low heat to simmer.

Be sure to skim off the foam and stir. From the moment it boils, cook for 5 minutes.

2. Pour the finished jam immediately into sterilized jars and roll up.

Pitted cherry jam

We need:

2 kg cherries
2 kg sugar

Preparation:

1. Wash the cherries, remove the pits. Currently, there are special cleaning machines,

I use the old-fashioned method, freeing the cherry from the pit using a pin (paper clip).

2. Do not throw away the seeds; when peeling the cherries, add sugar to them and the resulting juice and let them cook until the sugar dissolves.

Then we remove the foam and take out the seeds, you can throw them away, we won’t need them anymore.

3. Add cherries to the resulting syrup and cook until the first boil,

turn off the heat and leave for a day. Then boil the jam for 40 minutes and pack it into sterilized jars.

Pitted cherry jam with almonds

According to this recipe, we also cook jam with raspberries and strawberries.

We need:

1 kg cherries
0.5 kg sugar
30 ml lemon juice
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
20 g gelatin for jam
150 g almonds can be replaced with any nut)

Preparation:

1. Wash the cherries, remove the pits and add half the amount of sugar, leave for 4 hours. During this time, the cherry should release juice, about 300 ml, if you add less boiled water.

2. Mix cherries with gelatin, remaining sugar, ground cinnamon, lemon juice and almonds, mix everything, bring to a boil.

Cook, stirring, over low heat for 10 minutes.

Important: for diabetics, make jam with fructose or stevia.

Recipes for cherry jam with pits

We need:

1.5 kg cherries
1 kg sugar
100 ml apple juice (canned or nectar)
1 packet vanilla sugar
1 tsp cinnamon and sugar, optional

Preparation:

1. Wash the cherries.

Tip: to prevent the berries from boiling, soak the cherries in a soda solution for 30 minutes (1 tsp of soda per 1 liter of water).

2. Pour the juice over the sugar and cook the syrup over low heat.

3.Add vanilla sugar and cherries, mix and bring to a boil.

After boiling, cook for 15-20 minutes, do not forget to skim off the foam. 10 minutes before the end of cooking, add cinnamon. We close it hot in jars.

Recipes for yellow cherry jam

A lot can be said about the benefits of yellow cherries, but I want to speak from my own experience. My children, in childhood, and my grandchildren suffered from acetone, I don’t know how it is in other cities, but in Odessa, children get sick from acetone very often, I can’t say what it’s called correctly, from a medical point of view, but that’s not the point this. So, yellow cherries are very helpful in this matter, in any form.

We need:

1 kg yellow cherries, peeled
1/2 piece lemon
300 g sugar
1 tbsp. boiled water

Preparation:

1. Washed cherries, peel them from pits using these tools.

2. Place it in a cooking bowl, fill it with boiled water and add sugar. Place on low heat and cook for 3-5 minutes while stirring.

3. Cut the lemon into thin slices, wash it first and pour boiling water over it, be sure to remove the seeds, otherwise it will taste bitter. Add it to the cherries and boil for 10 minutes, you can simply cover with a lid, remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes, then boil for 10 minutes and pack into jars and roll up.

Cherry jam without seeds

We need: (jam yield 1.6 kg)

1 kg cherries, pitted
1 kg cherries, pitted
1.5 kg sugar

Preparation:

1.Pour the prepared cherries into a saucepan, add sugar and put on the fire, stir,

after it boils, take out the berries,

and continue to boil the syrup for about 30 minutes.

2. Return the berries to the syrup and cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes, place in a sterilized container.

Gooseberry jam recipes

Emerald green gooseberry jam

We need: (yield 3 liters of jam)

2 kg gooseberries, green
2 handfuls of cherry leaves
5 tbsp. water (1 tbsp=250 ml
2 kg sugar

Preparation:

1. Pour water into a saucepan and add the washed cherry leaves, bring to a boil and boil for 15 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon, set aside 1/3 of them, the rest can be thrown away.

2. Wash the gooseberries, cut off the stems and prick them with a toothpick in 2-3 places; this must be done so that the berries do not turn into mush.

3. Add sugar to the decoction of leaves and cook until the sugar dissolves. Then pour this syrup over the berries, in portions so as not to burst, and leave for 5-6 hours. You can do this in the evening and leave it overnight.

4. Then put on low heat, boil for 2-3 minutes, cool for 6 hours, then add the remaining leaves, stir and cook for 5 minutes.

Transfer the finished jam into sterilized jars.

Raw gooseberry jam

We need:

1 kg gooseberries
1 kg sugar
2 oranges (lemons)

Preparation:

1.Washed gooseberries, passed through a meat grinder with an orange, with skin, without seeds.

2. Add sugar to this mixture and mix thoroughly until smooth, let it sit overnight.

3. In the morning, place in sterilized jars, cover with nylon lids and store in the refrigerator.

Tip: jam can be distributed into plastic bags or glasses and frozen in the freezer.

Recipe for jam from any berry

According to the recipe, you can make jam from currants, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, etc.

We need:

1 kg of any berries
1 -1.2 kg sugar

Preparation:

1. Cover the berries with sugar and leave overnight.

2. Then we put it on the fire and boil it. To avoid the appearance of foam, add 1 tbsp. butter, and to preserve color 1 tbsp. lemon juice (THIS IS OPTIONAL). Cook for 5 minutes, remove from heat and cool until the next day.

3. The next morning, boil for 20 minutes. We roll the finished jam into jars.

Raw cranberry jam

For a 3 liter jar of cranberries = 2 kg of sugar, 2 oranges, 1 lemon, pass through a meat grinder, mix, add 2 tbsp. vodka. Transfer to jars and cover with nylon lids; you can store them in the basement.

Blackcurrant jam

1st option

We need:

1 kg black currants
1 tbsp. water (1 tbsp=250 ml)
1.5 kg sugar

Preparation:

1. Fill the currants with water and put on the fire, bring to a boil. Add sugar in small portions, each time waiting for it to dissolve.

2. From the moment of boiling, cook for 5 minutes and distribute the finished jam into jars.

2nd option

We need: 1 tbsp = 250 ml

7 tbsp. currants
9 tbsp. Sahara
3 tbsp. water

Preparation:

1. Boil water, add currants, bring to a boil, then add sugar and boil for 20 minutes. Seal in sterilized jars.

Blackcurrant jam without sugar

We need:

1 kg currants
pot of water
towel or pot rack

Preparation:

1.Put a pan of water on the fire, put a towel on the bottom.

2. Fill a 0.5 liter jar with currants and place in a pan with water. We warm it up, as the berries settle in the jar, add berries, and do this until the jar is full, with the top heated. Roll up the jar airtight and store in the basement.

Raspberry jam

We need:

1 kg raspberries
800 g sugar

Preparation:

1. Cover the raspberries with sugar and leave overnight.

2. Cook the next day, over medium heat for 5 minutes, from the moment of boiling.

3. Pour the finished jam into jars, wrap it up and leave to cool.

Raspberry jam without cooking

Preparation:

1. Mix 1 kg of berries and 1 kg of sugar and blend in a blender. Pour into jars, cover with nylon lids, and store in the refrigerator. Or pour into plastic glasses, cover with cling film and freeze in the freezer.

Video: How to sterilize jars and lids

If you read the comments after watching the video, you will learn even more ways to sterilize lids and jars.

Enjoy your winter tea!

There are many recipes for making jam, based on the characteristics of various fruits and berries. At the same time, there are general techniques and requirements for making jam from any raw material.

The ideal vessels for making jam are basins with a capacity of 2 to 6 liters, made of stainless steel or brass. It is not recommended to use larger containers, since delicate berries, such as raspberries and strawberries, can be crushed in them, and the jam will turn out soft. In addition, when using a large volume of berries, their cooking time is greatly extended, which also negatively affects the quality of the jam. Therefore, it is recommended to use basins with low sides for cooking jam.

Jam packaging

The best containers for packaging and storing finished jam are glass jars with a capacity of 0.5; 1; 2 l. The jars must first be washed in hot water, preferably with soda ash or another detergent, until completely clean, then rinsed with clean boiling water and turned upside down to drain the water. After this, the jars are dried in the oven until the moisture is completely removed. Immediately before packaging the finished jam, the jars must be completely dry and hot.

Regardless of the heat source used, the jam should be cooked for no more than 30-40 minutes, excluding the resting time. In the first 5-10 minutes from the moment of boiling, the jam should be cooked over low heat, since during this period the greatest foaming is observed and the contents of the basin may boil away. As the intensity of foam formation decreases and as the syrup thickens, the heat must be increased, making sure that the jam boils evenly and does not overflow over the edge of the basin.

Syrup for jam, which contains fruits or berries, must be transparent and colored in a color that is characteristic of these fruits or berries. It should not have any brownish or brownish tint. The latter indicates that the jam was overheated or cooked over too much heat.

It should be thick enough that it does not flow quickly from the surface of the spoon. The jam should contain equal amounts of berries and syrup. Excess or insufficient amount of syrup indicates a violation of the rules for making jam.

Fruits and berries that are intended for jam are collected on the day of cooking in sunny and dry weather, after they have dried from dew. It is not recommended to pick berries in rainy weather. It is important that the berries and fruits are of the same degree of ripeness. Unripe and overripe fruits and berries are unsuitable for making jam. Raspberries and strawberries should be collected in sieves or wicker baskets with a capacity of no more than 2-3 kg.

If the berries collected from your garden plot do not have any contamination, you do not need to wash them. In all other cases, fruits and berries are washed. Washing must be done after sorting, and some berries after cleaning (for example, after removing sepals from strawberries, stalks from raspberries and calyxes from currants) in cold, clean running water.

Tender berries should be rinsed for 1-2 minutes under running water or by repeated immersion in water in a container with a wired bottom (basket, colander). After washing, the berries and fruits need to be kept in a sieve for 15-20 minutes so that the water drains from them and they dry a little. After this, you can start making jam.

The most common is boiling fruits and berries in sugar syrup. To prepare the latter, a pre-measured amount of granulated sugar is poured into a clean brass or other basin, an enamel pan and filled with cold or hot water, after which the dishes are placed on medium heat and stirred with a spoon or slotted spoon until the sugar is completely dissolved. Then the syrup must be brought to a boil. After 1-2 minutes of boiling, the dishes are removed from the heat, and the syrup is considered ready for use.

Both the quality of the jam and its ability to be stored for a long time depend on the correct ratio of parts of sugar and berries or fruits. In the absence of scales, you can determine the weight of sugar by volume: one glass contains 200 g of sugar, a liter jar contains 800 g, and a half-liter jar contains 400 g.

Cooking jam involves some operations for which you need to prepare. Before the beginning cooking jam You should prepare the necessary utensils: a deep plate for foam, a tablespoon or a slotted spoon. After everything is prepared, place the basin with the syrup on moderate heat, carefully pour a measured amount of berries into it and mix them well with the syrup. To do this, you can take the basin with both hands and shake it in a circular motion. The syrup must cover the fruits or berries. The berries drenched in hot syrup are left for 3-4 hours. If you start cooking the jam immediately, and even over high heat, the syrup will not will have time to be absorbed into the berries, and the latter will shrivel and become very boiled.

Berries and fruits with hard skin (gooseberries, ranet, plums) are pierced with a sharp wooden stick so that the syrup is better absorbed. Black currants must first be blanched, that is, placed in boiling water for 2-3 minutes and then cooled. If this is not done, the berries in cold jam will turn out too dry.

It is necessary to carefully monitor the cooking process and ensure that the jam does not boil over. The fire must be maintained uniformly all the time, not very strong, but not very weak, adjusting it depending on the formation of foam. At the beginning of cooking, after 3-5 minutes have passed from the moment the jam boils, the basin should be removed from the heat, shake lightly with both hands, remove foam from the surface and put back on the fire. Cooking continues until foam appears again, which is removed again.

They do this until the abundant pricing stops. After this happens and the mass begins to boil more slowly at the same heat, this means that the cooking of the jam is approaching the end. You need to watch this moment very carefully, otherwise the jam will be overcooked. To avoid burning, the basin should be turned frequently and the berries or fruits should be stirred very carefully with a slotted spoon or spoon.

Berry jam

Delicate berries - raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, small plums, cherries with pits, currants - are boiled in several stages, with breaks of 8-10 hours. The first time, the syrup with berries is only brought to a boil, and then left to stand. The second time, the jam is boiled for 10-15 minutes and left to stand again. Only the third time can it be brought to readiness over high heat. Strawberries, cherries, sweet cherries and pitted plums can be cooked in one step - first over low heat, then over high heat.

With easily boiled berries you can do the following. After cooking lightly in the syrup, carefully remove the berries with a slotted spoon or strainer, and continue to boil the syrup. Shortly before the end of cooking, the berries are dipped into syrup again, brought to a boil again, and then the finished jam is sealed.

When the jam is ready

It is important to be able to determine the degree of readiness of the jam. The following methods are quite common:

1. Take a little syrup from the basin with a spoon, and if it flows from the spoon in a thick mass, and not in a liquid and thin thread, this means that the jam is not ready yet.

2. The cooled sample is carefully poured from a teaspoon onto a plate. If the syrup has not spread, the jam can be considered ready.

If the jam remains liquid for a long time during cooking, which often happens, for example, with cherry jam, you can add a little lemon juice or apple jelly to it. After this, the jam will quickly thicken.

After finishing cooking, the jam is immediately poured into clean, pre-prepared dishes - aluminum and enamel bowls or pans without cracks. In no case should you use cast iron or iron utensils for curing jam, as they will deteriorate the color of the jam.

Before packaging, the jam is usually cooled for 8-10 hours. Some types of jam, in which the fruits are quickly soaked in sugar (black currants, strawberries, cranberries, etc.), can also be packaged hot without prior standing.

For long-term storage, it is best to package the jam in glass or proven clay containers of small capacity - 0.5, 1 and 2 liters. After the jam has cooled completely, seal the container tightly.

The kernels of apricots, cherries, plums and peaches contain a substance that in the body, through decomposition, turns into a strong poison - hydrocyanic acid. When storing jam from fruits with seeds for a long time, its quantity increases, so it is not recommended to store such jam for more than a year. If the jam has been stored longer than this period, the syrup is drained, the seeds are removed from the fruit, the pulp is mixed with the syrup and boiled for 30-40 minutes, after which the danger of poisoning is removed.

The jam must be stored at a temperature of 10-15 °C.

If water gets into the finished jam or it is undercooked, if there is not enough sugar in it, the jam may ferment. In this case, it must be digested by adding a little sugar.

If the jam becomes moldy, it means that it is either poorly packaged or stored in a too damp room. You need to remove the mold, boil the jam and put it in another, drier place.

Jam recipes

There are many recipes for making jam from fruits and berries. Let's look at some of them.

Plum jam

Remove the stems from the plums, chop the fruits and place them in hot water at 85 °C for 10 minutes, then cool. Pour hot syrup over the prepared plums and leave for 3-4 hours, and then cook until tender. It is recommended to cook whole plum fruits in four batches. The standing time for the jam between cooking is 8 hours. Cool the finished plum jam, transfer it to the prepared container and close tightly.

Recipe. To prepare plum jam, you need to take 2 kg of sugar and 400 ml of water per 1 kg of plums.

Sea buckthorn jam

Pasteurized sea buckthorn jam is more stable during storage; there is no observed sugaring, molding, or fermentation. Sea buckthorn jam should be boiled at a temperature of 105 °C, then packaged in hot sterilized glass jars and pasteurized in boiling water: half-liter jars - 15 minutes, liter jars - 20 minutes. After pasteurization, jars should be sealed immediately.

Recipe. To prepare sea buckthorn jam for 1 kg of peeled sea buckthorn fruits you need 1.5 kg of sugar and 1.2 liters of water.

Red rowan jam

Removed after the first frost, when it no longer has a bitter taste, keep it in the oven at low temperature for 1-2 hours, then blanch it in very hot water for 5 minutes. Boil the syrup, dip the berries in it and leave for 6-8 hours. Then put it on fire. As soon as the jam boils, remove it from the heat for 10-15 minutes, repeating the procedure 4-5 times. Since rowan absorbs sugar very slowly, leave the jam for another 12 hours after the last cooking, then drain the syrup and boil to the desired thickness without berries. Place the berries in jars and pour hot syrup over them.

Recipe. To prepare red rowan jam, take 1.5 kg of sugar and 3 glasses of water per 1 kg of berries.

Cherry jam

Wash the cherries for jam, dry, chop or immerse in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then pour in hot syrup prepared using half the required amount of sugar. After pouring the syrup over the fruits, leave them for 4-6 hours, then separate the syrup from the fruits, add half the remaining sugar to it and boil for 10 minutes. Transfer the cherries to the boiling syrup and leave again for 5-6 hours. After standing, drain the syrup again. Add the rest of the sugar to it and simmer for 10-12 minutes. At the end of cooking, the cherry fruits are transferred to the syrup, left for 4-5 hours, after which the jam is cooked until ready. To prevent sugaring, add citric acid at the end of cooking. To improve the aroma, it is recommended to add a little vanillin.

Recipe. To prepare cherry jam for 1 kg of cherries you need 1-1.2 kg of sugar, 1 glass of water or seed decoction, 1-2 g of citric acid.

Raspberry jam

Raspberry jam is made from ripe fresh raspberries, collected in dry weather. Sort the raspberries, rinse with water, remove the stalks, sepals and fruit. If the raspberries are clean, they do not need to be washed. To remove raspberry beetle larvae, immerse the berries in a solution of table salt for several minutes, and remove the surfaced larvae with a spoon. Rinse the berries treated with a salt solution with water, pour hot syrup and leave for 4-5 hours, then separate them from the syrup. Boil the syrup to a boiling point of 107.5 °C, then cool slightly, add raspberries to it and cook over low heat. Place the cooled raspberry jam into jars.

Recipe for making raspberry jam: 1 kg of raspberries - 1.2-1.5 kg of sugar, 1 glass of water.

Redcurrant jam

Separate red currant berries from the bunches, rinse in cold water, place in a basin, pour in sugar syrup and leave for 6-8 hours, after which separate the fruits from the syrup. Boil the syrup, then cool slightly, add red currants to it and cook over low heat.

Recipe for red currant jam. For 1 kg of berries you need 1.5-1.8 kg of sugar, 1 liter of water.

Cherry plum jam

Thoroughly washed cherry plum fruits are pricked in several places with a thin wooden pin and placed in a basin. Boil the syrup, pour the hot syrup over the prepared cherry plum and leave it like that for a day. On the second day, drain the syrup, boil and pour the cherry plum again. On the third day, cook the jam until ready. It is very important to correctly determine the moment when cherry plum jam is ready and not to overcook it. The cherry plum should be transparent and evenly distributed in the syrup. Allow the finished jam to cool and transfer to clean, dry jars.

Recipe for cherry plum jam. For 1 kg of cherry plum take 1.4 kg of sugar, 1.5 glasses of water.

Gooseberry jam

Gooseberry jam It is brewed from unripe fruits, collected several days before the onset of consumer ripeness. Divide the sugar intended for jam into two halves. Use one of them to prepare syrup, divide the second into three equal parts, which will be added to the jam during cooking. Remove the stems from the gooseberries, wash and chop the berries. If the gooseberries are large, you can remove the seeds from them with a hairpin, carefully cutting the top of each berry. Pour hot syrup over the berries, in which they should remain for 4-6 hours.
After soaking in the syrup, separate the berries in a colander, add ½ of the remaining amount of sugar to the syrup, bring the syrup to a boil and simmer for 7-8 minutes over low heat, then pour the berries again for 5-6 hours. Repeat this operation two more times , each time adding granulated sugar to the syrup. Finally cook the gooseberry jam during the fourth cooking, at the end of which it is recommended to add a little vanillin. To preserve the natural color of the fruit, the finished jam must be quickly cooled by placing the basin in cold water or in a cold room. Like this gooseberry jam recipe.