A little bit of canned summer I prepared and made from last season. It was well worth it and very nice with my homemade almond and peanut butter spread too. Only I prefer my strawberry and mulberry mixed jam for this. Soooooo good. If only the good parts of life can be saved as well and enjoyed during those times where its not so pleasant.
Here we mostly see some of my process of making peach jam. I had made other type of tasty jam too.
I
basically cleaned and boiled the peaches till they were blanched. About
a few minutes in boiling water. Then I took the hot peaches and poured
cold water till they were cold enough to work with.
If
they were nice and ripe peaches, the skin should slide right off. Cut
the flesh off discarding the pit along with the fuzzy skin.
Make
sure you clean and inspect your jars beforehand on the day you plan on
making your jam. Store them in a heated oven. On the most minimal heat
to keep the jars pretty warm to almost hot. Must stay sanitized.
Then measure and grind/crush the peaches according to the instructions on the packet of pectin.
Then
I placed the peach mush into a tall pot. I put in a pouch of pectin in.
I mixed it all till I had a hard boil for a few minutes.
Then
I took the tall pot of stuff off the hot ring to place the many cups of
sugar in. Placing only a few cups at a time. Must have all that sugar!
No if ands or buts!
Me putting in all that sugar.🔺
After you finish pouring in the sugar. Bring the whole pot to a hard boil again.
Boil away till the mixture rises to the top a bit. Then you know you're done and you can remove it from the heat.
At
this point put a table spoon of margarine in. It will reduce the foam
to nearly nothing. At least you won't have to skim the top Afterwords.
(a pain if you ask me).
Place it in the warm nearly hot jars and close the lid tight!
If
you are going to give the full jars a little rinse because you split
some on the jar, make sure you use hot tap water. Don't use warm cause
the jar can explode in your hand. Water you
use must nearly be the same hot temp to clean as the jam inside.
Then put the full jars in a canning pot est. This is good for first
timers. But I just put the jars upside down in another pot of some
simmering/boiling water for a few mins to seal the deal. Then I
place them on the table to cool off. Jars must have some time to
self-seal. You will know by the button on the lid. It will kind of cave
in. Must seal, if not, you may run in to botulism in the future. Which
is not a good thing.
An unsealed lid will make a clicking noise when you press the top.
Jam is good for a year and more. I have had some for several years with no problems.
Some of my finished peach jam placed in the fridge.
Some of this year's strawberry and cherry jam with blueberries.
My
jams are delicious even if not perfect. Sometimes I do a bit of
compromising depending on how much fruit I have and ripeness. The
consistency of the jams varies.
Sometimes there's a bit of foam in with the jam too. But it's no big
deal. Doesn't change the taste of the jam even it not exactly pretty.
I hope this helps and good luck in making yours. 😊👍
The
box of pectin usually has very good instructions in them for beginners.
Then there's always the internets for supplementing info.
Enjoy!
