Help please-going bananas

[bevjones]

Hi everyone,

I've just joined the forum today and I am hoping there is someone out there who can help me. I've made my first attempt today at making banana jam and it all ended in tears. The bottom of my maslin pan was black, my kitchen stinks of burnt caramel. The recipe said to put the chopped bananas & lemon juice straight into a pan and bring to the boil then add the sugar. Once the suger went in it started to look like jam but I did notice that the bottom of the pan was going brown before the sugar went in. The jam ended up a lovely caramel colour but I'm not sure about the black bits! - can anybody tell me where I went wrong? Thank you

 

[Hoot]

Howdy and welcome!
Not sure about the recipe...if it were me I would melt the sugar first and bring it to a boil..cook it until it is a thick consistency. Then I would add the bananas and other ingredients(s) and reduce the heat til the bananas are cooked through.
Slowly bring the heat up and cook until the pectin will set.
Follow your original recipe for the cooking times but I would start the sugar first.
Sounds like an interesting deal. Never heard of banana jam before.
Let us know if this helps. Good luck!!

 

[bevjones]

Thank you

Thanks very much for your help. I will definately try sugar first next time. Does the sugar just go into the pan dry or does it need a bit of water with it?
Another question I would like help with is I have read so many different things about how to put the finish product in the jars and prevent it going mouldy, some say hot liquid into hot jars, some say cool liquid into cool jars, some say turn the jar upside down and some say not - what is the correct thing to do?
Thanks very much for your quick reply by the way - I didn't think I get a reply so quick.
Regards
Bev Jones.

 

[Hoot]

A little water will not hurt. I would put the jars into a hot water bath. Hot liquid into hot jars. They will seal as they cool. You should hear a small "pop" when each jars seals.
Be sure to use new lids, you can reuse the rings but not the lids.
Something else occurs to me. Not knowing how much pectin is in bananas, you might want to use Certo or Sure Gel or other pectin. There will likely be a recipe on the pectin package that you can adapt to bananas. Hmm...I might have to look into trying this myself. The more I think about it, the more I would like to try it. Good luck!

 

[bevjones]

Thanks very much - you have been very helpful. Good luck with your attempt - it can't turn out any worse than mine did. You've given me some hope though and I will try it again.

Let me know how you get on.

Regards,
Bev Jones.

 

[rogercbryan]

Hey Bev I'd love to see a pic of what you made. It always help when it comes time to do it yourself.

 

[Dave Hutchins]

Welcome don't loose sleep over your boo boo some one a lot smarter than me will help you I can cook the pants off of most folks but when it come to jam forget it