Jam Gone Wrong

[Jammer John]

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to this forum but am anxious to participate and get some good tips for what I do in the jamming season. I have the good fortune to have home grown apricots, Boysenberries, raspberries and damson plums. Wild blackberries grow in great profusion not more than 100 yards from my home. And of course the stores have great strawberries almost all year round now. I make a nice chunky apricot jam, seedless Boysenberry, blackberry and raspberry jam, and this will be my first year at putting up some damson jam.

My question is this: Why does and strawberry and raspberry jam (and the store-bought damson jam I've been sampling) start to turn to sugar (or something whitish anyway) after it has been open for only a week or so? I keep it in the fridge but can't eat it fast enough to get through a whole jar before it starts to turn. This doesn't happen to my apricot jam and I don't recall it happening to my blackberry or Boysenberry jam either.

 

[Loprraine]

Welcome to DC, JJ! Not sure what the problem is, but, are you following a standard recipe? Are you processing it in a hot water bath? And, are you ever lucky! Where do you live?

 

[JoAnn L.]

Hi and welcome to DC John. So glad you are joining us.

 

[Bilby]

Welcome to DC! I think it has something to do with the refrigeration but am happy if someone tells me I'm wrong!

 

[Wart]

Howdy.

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to this forum but am anxious to participate and get some good tips for what I do in the jamming season.

I read this as jamming session.

My question is this: Why does and strawberry and raspberry jam (and the store-bought damson jam I've been sampling) start to turn to sugar (or something whitish anyway) after it has been open for only a week or so?

Use allot of sugar?

It's my guess your jams are highly saturated with sugar. You open the jar, a bit of water evaporates, a sugar crystal forms and acts as a seed crystal.

Just a guess.

I keep it in the fridge but can't eat it fast enough to get through a whole jar before it starts to turn. This doesn't happen to my apricot jam and I don't recall it happening to my blackberry or Boysenberry jam either.[/QUOTE]

 

[Jammer John]

Thanks to all. I use a standard recipe from inside the pectin box and I follow it very closely. I just had a crepe or two with strawberry jam from Fortnum & Mason in London (from a recent trip) and it had been open for about two weeks and was already turning cloudy. I tasted the cloudy part and it doesn't have a distinctive flavor to speak of. After spooning it off the top the rest was just as good as ever. Guess I'll write to one or two jam makers and ask them what's up with those jams.

You're right about being lucky. I live in Folsom (thank you Johnny Cash) and the weather is just right for all sorts of good stuff in the back garden. Just had a look at my Boysenberries and they are going to produce a record breaking crop this year. What a treat! But it's not just the fruit, we have the nicest roses, irises, calla lillies and daffodils. Even the French lavender gets to be 4 feet tall. A great place to have a garden, for sure.

Cheers