Jam Making

I have a confession. Been making jam/marmalade for years. Usually manage to get good flavour, usually avoiding over caramelising the sugar but so seldom have my sets come out right. Done all the reading, done all the tests, finger test, temperature, pectin but mostly to no avail, even for those sure fire jams that novices can do with their eyes closed! Recent years I have got so despondent I spoke frequently of giving up and do no more, but, that taste of homemade is so superior I end up trying for that one more time.

A few caveats, I do not use commercial setting agents or pectin's, except in extremis. I reckon that what with all the mess for washing up, all the waste of scum or residue on a variety of tools pots and pans and processing time spent it is better to do one large batch than a number of small ones. In anycase I seems I still have a family if not to feed then to pass jars onto.

Just completed this years Dundee and also a Seville Marmalade, its looking like I may have cracked it at last. Hence this posting just incase it helps anyone out there floundering like me. Or some sharp eyed maestro can spot the errors of my ways!
 
I now routinely use a digital thermometer with a set (104°C) temperature alarm. Past reading has also highlighted, amongst other things, the need to bring the temperature up quickly and to work in small batches. But no this was not small batches, it was one large batch in my usual large preserving pan that oversails the ceramic top hob. So what was new. Well paid a lot attention to reducing the liquor level well beyond the recipe level before adding the pre-warmed sugar. My concern is not volume produced but that whatever is produced sets well. Watching the temperature rise it took a long time coming even though the probe was in the middle of the rolling boil and off the bottom. In fact it never reached a high enough temperature to trigger the temperature alarm (on my thermometer it waits until 105°C). When I stirred to make sure there was no sticking on the bottom, it happens, the temperature plummeted by almost 20°C then took a long time to get back, frequently oscillating up and down.

This then is what I have discovered. It is not just enough that the probe shows the desired temperature but the whole of the jam has to get up to that temperature. That means, leaving it alone, only folding the pan edges in at the last moment before leaving it to recover. It will take longer than the book says, particularly if your pot is wider than the heating source. It is a tightrope walk, overcook it then it caramelises, undercook it then the bulk is still under temperature, stir it and you lose massive heat, not sir it and the edges are too cold.

Don't despair, make sure your liquor is reduced well before adding the sugar then watch the temperature fluctuations and wait until it is fairly stable and you know the edges have recently been bought in. You can do it. It is worth it.