Jelly and Jam TLC

Submitted by LCE Guest on Sun, 12/16/2007 - 06:33.

Cooking

LCE is pleased to present guest author Karen M. Rysavy, author of Cooking TLC: Truly Low Carb Cooking.

Absolutely anyone - and by that, I mean YOU - can make traditional, "canned-off" jam or jelly. Even if you skip the canning part! 'Since it is now the season to do just that, here are step-by-step illustrated directions to help insure that you don't let late summer's abundance slip away - preserve it inexpensively for months to come, instead.

You will need:

pint or half pint jars, complete with new sealing flats and rings - You can reuse jars and rings, but should always buy new sealing flats
a large water-bath canner with rack - second hand stores are a great place to find these inexpensively, and complete new canning setups can be purchased for less than $30 US
large mouth funnel, jar lifter, ladle, lid lifter (has a magnet on the end to pluck flats out of the hot water easily) heat-proof stirring and scraping utensils, and clean towels - you can improvise to do without most of these, if you want
No sugar needed fruit pectin

If you can't find any the above supplies locally, check www.homecanning.com.

Step 1: Prepare the fruit and jars

Wash all jars, lids, and rings well. If making jelly, sterilize jars according to the instructions and times included in the pectin.

Fill a clean canner halfway with warm water, and keep jars and lids warm in the water on low heat while preparing the jam. I put the flats in a smaller pan of water as shown and balance it on top of the jars, to make it easy to find the flats when needed. Put the cover on and let this go on low heat until you are ready to fill the jars.

Choosing good fruit is important. Do not use bruised, over-ripe, or under-ripe specimens. Wash and sort well, and peel if necessary. Chop or crush large berries and fruits into smaller pieces to make jams. To make jelly with wild berries and fruits such as crabapple and chokecherries (two things I love to mix with rhubarb, myself) add enough water to cover the clean fruit completely, boil until soft, then put the mixture through a food mill or strainer of some kind to remove pits, skin, etc. You'll have to guess at the measurements when working with wild produce, but that's half the fun of it. I have had great luck using the proportions as listed by Ball for apple juice jelly but substituting any manner of fruit extract, diluted with Davinci sugar free syrups to reduce carbs. I often cook down the fruit down into juice one day, and then make and can the actual jelly the following day - or even the following week... (the plain juice will hold in the refrigerator for a while). Using sugar free syrups gives you an added bonus by making your homemade jams last longer, due to the preservatives they contain.

Prepping Fruit To peel the peaches used in this batch, I use the same technique as when peeling tomatoes: Cut a small x in the skin, then lower into rapidly boiling water for one minute. Remove from boiling water; drop into a bowl of ice water to instantly halt the cooking process. When cool enough to handle, the skins will slip right off! I then removed the pits and crushed the peaches using just my hands - what can I say, they happen to be my favorite kitchen tools!

Step 2: Add to the pulp or juice as needed, then boil with pectin

Measure the fruit pulp and place it in a large, non-reactive (non-aluminum) pan. Add water, sweetener, sugar free syrup, or flavorings as desired. Use the guide that comes inside the pectin for measurement guidelines. I made a double batch here (with 2 boxes of pectin) and used about 24 large, fresh peaches, weighing 1700 grams, which yielded 6 cups of pulp. I mixed that with 2 cups water and 2 cups of peach flavored Davinci sugar free syrup. Between the sucralose in the syrup and the natural sweetness of the wonderful hand-picked peaches I used, I needed no additional sweetening, but you will need to taste the mix at this point and adjust as needed.

Add the pectin slowly over medium heat, stirring constantly; bring to a full rolling boil. Boil and stir for exactly one minute, then remove from heat and allow to rest for a few minutes, during which time some foam will rise to the top as shown. (Some mixtures will foam a LOT, and others will foam only a little.)

Step 3: Remove any foam

Use a spoon to carefully skim all the foam off the jam or jelly. DO NOT skip this step, or your end product will be very unappealing, as shown at right. It may seem wasteful to discard a cup or more, but I am telling you to do so with the voice of experience - trust me on this.

The foam will congeal into a substance with the exact consistency of "gak". If you have kids in the house, let them come and feel it and play with it before you throw it away, and they will think you are really cool!

Step 4: Fill the jars

Working on clean towels, remove the warm jars from the canner and drain briefly. Fill the jars with the hot skimmed jam, one at a time, then place each in the canner. Fill jars to within one quarter inch from the top of the jar; do not overfill (some "head space" is required.)

BEFORE ADDING A SEALING FLAT, WIPE THE TOP LIP OF THE JAR AND THE THREADS WITH A CLEAN DAMP TOWEL, TO INSURE THAT THESE AREAS ARE COMPLETELY CLEAN.

Center the warm sealing flat on the jar and hand-tighten the jar ring. Do not attempt to over-tighten; the actual seal comes from the canning process.

Step 5: Process (seal) the jars in a water bath

Place each jar in the rack as they are filled (note the position of the rack). Do not over fill the canner; jars should never be stacked on top of each other in a water bath canner, and there should be room for water to circulate in between each jar. When the filled jars are arranged in the rack, slowly lower it to the bottom. Jars should be completely immersed in water and covered by at least one to two inches of water - add additional warm water at this point if you need to bring the water level up. Increase heat to high, and bring the water in the canner to a full rolling boil. Start timing only after the boil starts. Process the jars according to the chart in the pectin. Because I live at 6500 feet in elevation, I had to add 15 minutes to the processing time, and I processed these particular jars for 25 minutes in total. Processing times differ for jellies and jams and it is always best to go over than under.

Step 6: Clean and inspect the jars

After processing is complete, remove jars from the canner and place on the towel to cool. The actual seal will occur as they cool, so do not be alarmed if some of the jars do not appear to be securely sealed when first removed from the water bath. Once the jars are cool, inspect each one for a tight seal and immediately refrigerate any that are not secure, or reprocess. Affix a colorful label, if desired. If you processed the jars for a long time, a build up of chalky minerals may cloud the jars and lids, as shown at left. Use a paper towel dampened with white vinegar to clean this off.

I always fill one regular container to be placed immediately in the refrigerator and consumed (I don't bother to process this jam in the canner at all.) There is no real need to "can off" any homemade jam or jelly, ever - if you want, just make half batches regularly instead - make jam and put it right in the refrigerator, where it will keep well for two to three weeks. You can even process the jelly juice in bulk when harvesting in season, then measure and freeze that in just the right amounts for single or half batches. When you are ready to make another batch, it will be easy to thaw and use just what you need. I always can my jams and jellies off the old fashioned way so that I can make it just once per year, and can then send it safely through the mail to share with family and friends, but if that part is intimidating to you, just skip it!

Low Carb Jelly Almost Done You will need to add up the carbs for each batch of jam or jelly that you make, and that can be tough when using things like chokecherries or crabapples, but with peaches it was easy enough - this batch made exactly 10 cups of jam, and each 2 Tb. serving has 17 calories and 4 grams carb. Not too high for maintenance, especially for concentrated real fruit. Other combinations would be much lower in carbs - I estimate my chokecherry-crabapple-rhubarb-syrup mixtures at less than 1 carb per 2 Tb.
Enjoy low carb fruit jams on the odd piece of low carb toast, as well as in and on low carb desserts and muffins, ice cream, pancakes, marinades and grilling sauces, etc.

Last summer I made a sugar free Pepper Jelly that won Grand Champion of all soft spreads (jams, jellies, fruit butters, chutneys, relishes, etc.) at the Eagle County, Colorado Fair, and you know what? It won over all the regular entries because it is actually much better than the old sugar-filled version that I used to take such pride in.

Jam! I hope I have motivated some of you to try your hand at making jelly or jam, and I would love to hear about your results.

And if I STILL haven't convinced you to try making jam the old-fashioned way illustrated above, then how about trying what I like to call "World's Easiest Refrigerator Jam," instead?

Additional Recipe Notes

You may need to add more or less sweetener to adjust for taste and/or variances in fruits. Taste each batch to check for sweetness, and make adjustments as needed.

Substituting Fiberfit for Splenda is a great way to reduce overall carbs in this recipe. Natural flavor concentrates can be lovely additions as well.