Cooking Tip: Testing Jam For a Set
I’ve seen my Mom making jams with all sorts of fruits since I was a little girl and as long as I can remember, we’ve always eaten home-made jam for breakfast. Strawberry, apricot, cherry, blackberry, blackcurrant, apple, pear, rhubarb, quince, plum, peach… We were lucky enough to have all kinds of fruits, sometimes in so big quantities that we didn’t know what to do with them.
As kids, we used to help her making jams, because it’s a time-consuming task, especially when you’ve got 2 or 3 kgs of fruits at a time. So we used to peel, slice, cut and pit, and at the end we could scrape the jam pot clean. That’s how good it was!
Despite all that, I had never made jam myself until very recently, but I knew how to do it: cut the fruits, add sugar and pectin and cook it. I also remembered how to check if the jam had reached its setting point, which is certainly the crucial and delicate part in the process. It can be tricky but it’s not really difficult. You just need to practise a little.
How to Test Jam For a Set
There are 3 good ways of testing if your jam has reached the setting point:
- With a sugar or jam thermometer: jam sets at a temperature of 105°C (220°F). Simply immerse the thermometer in the jam, keeping it away from the base and sides of the pan. Leave until the temperature has been reached.
- With a cold plate: put a little jam on a cold plate, cool it, and if adequately set it should wrinkle and feel firm.
- With a wooden spoon: lift a little jam out of the pan. Let it cool slightly, then hold the spoon horizontally. If the jam has set, it will form a firm drop or flake on the edge of the spoon.
Did you find this cooking tip useful? What kind of tips would you like to read about?
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(c) photo by meuh57 via Flickr
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