I've had a good amount of traffic with the last tutorial http://www.survivalmonkey.com/forum...mato-sauce-scratch-finsed-canned-product.html so I thought I would start another. Although the season for most jam making fruits is past it's prime, this is such a good recipe you might want to keep it around till next summer. In the tutorial I use Peach, Plum, and Nectarine. The nectarine is optional as it does not make a very big difference in the recipe. First I have a picture with all my materials, you can see a few different fruits which I will explain in the next pic. I also have knives and a cutting board. Here you will see my selection of fruit. Top row is peaches, middle is nectarine, and bottom is 2 types of plumb. So lets get started. Slice your fruit into wedges. You can now see why I had 2 knives, the white one goes right through the pit and all. Next you will peel your wedges. The peeling can get tough and chewy, so you want to get it all off. A sharp knife is a must for this step. Here you can see my plumb is wedged and peeled, this is what you are aiming for. I don't have a pic, but you want to cut up the peeled wedges into tiny pieces and perhaps even mash them a bit with a potato masher. You will then want to add 1/4 cup of lemon juice, or if you are like me and don't have any, squeeze some limes into the pot of cut up fruit. Next, mix in a separate bowl, a pack of pectin, and 1/2 cup sugar. Put your pot of fruit on the burner and start to warm. As is warms add the Pectin/Sugar mix a little at a time. Stir, stir, stir! make sure it does not burn. You want to stir until the mixture becomes liquidy and is at a rolling boil. This is when you cannot stir the boil away. Mix in sugar to taste, sometimes as much as 3 cups is needed. Pour into jars, then into the boiler to boil for 5 minutes. The two jars on the left are just peach flavored, not nearly as god as the peach, plum, nectarine combo. That is it, very simple, great starting point for beginners, and the Jam is the best jam I have ever tasted. Hope you enjoy!
That's great, thanks The only change I would make for myself is to use pure organic demerara sugar instead of the refined white type. I have experimented in the past with a small part of rice syrup also, but I didn't like that.
Thanks ammon, I enjoy the pics. I made Grape Jelly from my harvest this year for the first time. I have pics and may eventually post them, but after an hour of boiling and stirring without the juice thickening, I added a second pouch of pectin fearing I had done something wrong and I didn't want it to all boil away. It thickened right up and I canned several quarts. Unfortunately, I now have some rather large (delicious) "Jolly Ranchers". I messed up - but, it does soften up in the microwave and it's totally yummy, but I just want to caution any other canning newbs to be patient and take it easy on the pectin.
