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I tried my hand at making jam a week ago. Not made anything like that before.
I found a recipe online for a tomato and chilli jam.
Chief ingredients were tomatoes (shop bought), and red chillies (from GH; I opted for a Thai variety). Remaining ingredients were: garlic, ginger, golden caster sugar, red wine vinegar, and a splash of Thai fish sauce (all shop bought).
The method looked to be pretty straightforward; prepare the vegetables, then put in a blender until pureed, pour into a pan, add sugar and other liquid, bring to boil, then simmer for 40 minutes. I did all of this, then poured the mixture into sterilised jars and sealed them.
Come the following morning, the 'jam' had all the stiffness of a cup of tea, so clearly something had gone wrong. It did however taste fantastic, with perfect heat.
I explained the problem to a friend with far more knowledge on the subject, and was told to source 2 lbs of cooking apples, chop them up and gently heat with a little water, until the apple turned to mush, and then strain all the liquid from the mush. Return the failed jam sauce to the pan, add the apple liquid and some more sugar, then boil for a few minutes. Then take a sample and conduct a saucer test to check whether it was starting to thicken. Repeat the process of boiling and testing until it did. So I did all of that yesterday evening.
Thing was, the jam was so runny I was boiling it for a good 20-25 minutes before it started to finally thicken. It started to ressemble jam as I poured it back into the jars (re-washed and sterilised again), and now it has cooled it has set just enough to qualify as a jam. However, the taste is ruined. Before I had all the subtle flavours of the chilli, plus tomato and garlic. The dominating flavours now are of capsicum (just the burn), vinegar, and it's too sweet.
I wonder, was the issue the lack of naturally occurring pectin in tomatoes and / or chillies, whether I should have added extra pectin (I saw jam sugar on the shelf when I went to buy the golden caster sugar), the water content of tomatoes not being properly considered when the recipe was conceived, or was the heat too low first time around..?
I looked up a different jam recipe this eveing, and according to that author, the whole cooking process should take no longer than 4 minutes!!
Definately worth trying again though
I found a recipe online for a tomato and chilli jam.
Chief ingredients were tomatoes (shop bought), and red chillies (from GH; I opted for a Thai variety). Remaining ingredients were: garlic, ginger, golden caster sugar, red wine vinegar, and a splash of Thai fish sauce (all shop bought).
The method looked to be pretty straightforward; prepare the vegetables, then put in a blender until pureed, pour into a pan, add sugar and other liquid, bring to boil, then simmer for 40 minutes. I did all of this, then poured the mixture into sterilised jars and sealed them.
Come the following morning, the 'jam' had all the stiffness of a cup of tea, so clearly something had gone wrong. It did however taste fantastic, with perfect heat.
I explained the problem to a friend with far more knowledge on the subject, and was told to source 2 lbs of cooking apples, chop them up and gently heat with a little water, until the apple turned to mush, and then strain all the liquid from the mush. Return the failed jam sauce to the pan, add the apple liquid and some more sugar, then boil for a few minutes. Then take a sample and conduct a saucer test to check whether it was starting to thicken. Repeat the process of boiling and testing until it did. So I did all of that yesterday evening.
Thing was, the jam was so runny I was boiling it for a good 20-25 minutes before it started to finally thicken. It started to ressemble jam as I poured it back into the jars (re-washed and sterilised again), and now it has cooled it has set just enough to qualify as a jam. However, the taste is ruined. Before I had all the subtle flavours of the chilli, plus tomato and garlic. The dominating flavours now are of capsicum (just the burn), vinegar, and it's too sweet.
I wonder, was the issue the lack of naturally occurring pectin in tomatoes and / or chillies, whether I should have added extra pectin (I saw jam sugar on the shelf when I went to buy the golden caster sugar), the water content of tomatoes not being properly considered when the recipe was conceived, or was the heat too low first time around..?
I looked up a different jam recipe this eveing, and according to that author, the whole cooking process should take no longer than 4 minutes!!
Definately worth trying again though
)
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