Quote:
Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8
...[I]If you’ve ever made jam or jelly at home, you know most recipes require more sugar than fruit—oftentimes 4 to 7 cups!—causing many people to look for other ways to preserve more naturally and with less sugar. Pomona’s Pectin is the answer to this canning conundrum. Unlike other popular pectins, which are activated by sugar, Pomona’s is a sugar- and preservative-free citrus pectin that does not require sugar to jell. As a result, jams and jellies can be made with less, little, or no sugar at all...
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I don't know if I could repeat the tongue twister 10 times, but I do know more than a little about jam making; the above quote smacks to my own way of thinking as just being a sales pitch for a product that is not necessary and is undesirable for making good jams. I would avoid the so called low-methoxyl pectins like these if one wants to make good jams.
Of course some people need to avoid excessive sugar intakes and these calcium substituting for sugar additives may be useful for them, but in my view perhaps just using less proper jam and limiting other sugar rich foods (including the magical honey
) is a better and tastier method. Also, in the end, low sugar jams do not keep very well as they tend to lose quality and colour.
A short example of an excellent take on jam making is, to me, at
http://www.allotment-garden.org/reci...ugar-and-water .
If you want to be bored by my take on low-methoxyl pectins and on jam making then:
Spoiler:
The preservative in jams is sugar and so to claim that jams, which are preserves, can be made with little or no sugar at all is just rubbish. Jams are, typically, with slight variations about this, made with equal weights of sugar and fruit, in which case they will keep long term, or with half the weight of sugar to fruit, in which case they keep but may not be long keeping (and because of that should be refrigerated when opened). If a low-methoxyl pectin is used to allow sugar quantities less than these the jam's keeping properties will be adversely affected. Note that honey is just a sugar, even though one would not guess that among the frequent claims inferring otherwise when given as a substitute in some jam recipes.
I have not, that I can recall, come across a common fruit that requires pectin added, though, admittedly, the addition of pectin or the use of "jam sugar" (which is just sugar with pectin added) makes jam making easier, but it does not change the sugar quantities for qualification as a preserve or for giving the jam its keeping properties.
The difficulty most people have is recognising the set point during the final boil up of the jam and adding pectin does make this easier. I have the same difficulty as the test on a plate or watching the way drips come off the stirring spoon, etc. I find are pretty subjective. The key for us is to use a thermometer (the electronic cooking ones with probes are good) then when the boil up gets to 105C (220F approx.) most fruits will set at the "standard" consistency. Varying that temperature up and down will give a thicker or runnier jam. If it takes too long to get to 105C then commonly too much water has been added when cooking the fruit before the sugar is added for the later boil up; most recipes, in my experience, state far too much water, juicy fruits require just enough to prevent catching prior to its juice flowing when the fruit is first put in the pan and cooked.
Some low acid fruits will set more reliably with a little citric acid or lemon juice added, as for setting conventionally sugar, pectin and acid are necessary (using slightly unripe fruit is another way of ensuring sufficient acid). The so called low-methoxyl pectins substitute calcium for some sugar. If acid is added to a readily setting fruit having sufficient acid in itself one will end up with a thicker than desirable jam when boiled to the normal setting temperature (105C).
Which leads to when I had a look at the Pomona website ALL of their jam recipes that I looked at (I did not look at them all) had large amounts of citric acid or lemon juice added which infers that a lot of extra acidity is needed to promote setting with calcium substituted for sugar. Use of citric acid/lemon juice has a definite effect on the taste of jams and this is going to be more so with "jams" having low sugar ratios. My own experiments with jams having the conventional jam making lowest recommended 1:2 sugar to fruit weight ratio indicate added acid in the usually recommended quantities results in a very noticeable acidity in the finished jam; that may be fine if a not so sweet jam is wanted but to my taste the effect gives an artificial result that masks the fruit's own flavour. Artificially adding pectin other than from that in the same fruit (so, for example using commercial pectin or extracting it from another fruit, say apples) also affects the true flavour of the jam, but not to the same extent as added acids do.
Regarding fruits that are claimed to be low in pectin, I never trust a recipe's claims of that as they are usually wrong. As one example we grow loquats and use those as a base for jams (e.g. loquat and ginger jam) and recipes will commonly claim that loquats are low in pectin requiring extra to be added; whereas, in fact, they actually have more than enough pectin to allow setting (and that verified by analysis as well as in practice).
Note that my criticism of this book is not meant to detract from your leads to book bargains, they are much appreciated by me
.
John