Season of mellow fruitfulness... jamming anyone?

Rechuchote

It's jam-making time. What are people making? Got a rake of Bramleys in Supervalu for 79c for four; thinking about apple jelly.

The recipes are a little puzzling, though. Rather than one litre, two litres, etc, they tend to have things like 1.7 litres. At first I assumed this was because they were converting from imperial or American to metric, but seemingly not. What the?

We have a jam thread going already so I'm going to merge them

Rechuchote

Thanks for the merge, Gloom.

I've made one batch of apple-and-rosehip - didn't set; one batch of apple jelly - didn't set. What the…?

I have a couple of theories on it:

Could the jam sugar be too old (God, jam sugar is expensive!)
Could I be making too big a batch at a time?

Alun

Rechuchote wrote: »

Thanks for the merge, Gloom.

I've made one batch of apple-and-rosehip - didn't set; one batch of apple jelly - didn't set. What the…?

I've made a few apple and <insert random fruit here> jellies before, and as far as I know the secret, if that's the right word, was to a) use cooking apples and b) use the entire apple, peel, core, seeds and all. Much of the pectin that makes it set is in the peel.


There's a really abundant sloe crop this year, so I may make some more sloe jelly, which is also actually more apple then sloe in fact.

EDIT: disn't see your edit .. I used plain sugar, not jam sugar, and no added pectin.

ellejay

Alun wrote: »

I've made a few apple and <insert random fruit here> jellies before, and as far as I know the secret, if that's the right word, was to a) use cooking apples and b) use the entire apple, peel, core, seeds and all. Much of the pectin that makes it set is in the peel.


There's a really abundant sloe crop this year, so I may make some more sloe jelly, which is also actually more apple then sloe in fact.

EDIT: disn't see your edit .. I used plain sugar, not jam sugar, and no added pectin.

Alun I'm looking for sloe's to make sloe gin, could you pm where you pick them please? I'm not far from Bray.

Alun

ellejay wrote: »

Alun I'm looking for sloe's to make sloe gin, could you pm where you pick them please? I'm not far from Bray.

PM sent.

Rechuchote

I used Bramleys and a few blackberries for a richer colour. Boiled the chopped apples and blackberries and the thin rind of two lemons for around half an hour until well pulped, then strained them and added about 2/3 the amount of sugar per litre (450g sugar to 600ml). I forgot to warm the sugar, but added it cold. Squeezed in the lemons, brought the mix to a gentle simmer till the sugar dissolved stirring, then to a high rolling foaming boil for around 10 minutes.

All this, so far (apart from forgetting to warm the sugar) is from Darina Allen's Forgotten Skills of Cooking.

At this stage I started testing, and boiling, and testing, and boiling, and testing, and boiling, and testing, and boiling, and testing, and boiling. It never jelled.

Alun

Sounds very similar to my recipe. I used twice the weight of apples to sloes, and the juice and peel of half a lemon for every kilo of apples. Brought to a boil, simmered, and strained overnight. Next day added 400g sugar per 500ml of measured liquid, stirred until dissolved and brought to a boil. I used sugar thermometer but also tested on a cold saucer, and it gelled just fine. My sugar ratio was a bit higher than yours is the only major difference I can see.

Rechuchote

Trying again. I think I may have mis-measured and used way too much water.

Alun

Rechuchote wrote: »

Trying again. I think I may have mis-measured and used way too much water.

My recipe just said add enough water to just cover the fruit, no quantity mentioned.

Rechuchote

Hm, this time I used a litre of water to a kilo of fruit. I don't even have a litre of juice to show for it!

Rechuchote

Cracked it. I wasn't using enough sugar. The amount of sugar seems so huge (because you're judging it by weight against liquid volume and sugar looks bigger than liquid) that I didn't really believe it.

(I've made apple jelly before, but it's been a few years, and I'd forgotten exactly how it should look. And while there are a good few videos out there, none of them that I've found actually show the measuring and then show the volume of sugar to juice.)

Gloomtastic!

Bought a jar of Irish Black Butter last week because it had me intrigued.

It’s basically apple conserve and sugar/treacle/molasses. Loads of uses for it - dip/spread/coating and seems pretty easy to replicate.

https://www.irishblackbutter.com

Alun

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Bought a jar of Irish Black Butter last week because it had me intrigued.

It’s basically apple conserve and sugar/treacle/molasses. Loads of uses for it - dip/spread/coating and seems pretty easy to replicate.

https://www.irishblackbutter.com

It actually originated in Jersey of all places, called Nièr Beurre in the local Jersey dialect.

Not sure about how easy it would be to replicate though. when I visited a place there where they make the stuff it's cooked on a very low heat for a very long time. I'd say you'd have to watch it like a hawk. No molasses or treacle added though, that sounds like cheating

Rechuchote

Not this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beurre_noir

Alun

Rechuchote wrote: »

Not this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beurre_noir

Same name, kind of, but a totally different thing.

Rechuchote

YouTube has a bunch of different flavoured beurre noir recipes. Does the Irish one list ingredients?

We jammin', to think that jammin' was a thing of the past.

Alun

Rechuchote wrote: »

YouTube has a bunch of different flavoured beurre noir recipes. Does the Irish one list ingredients?

Beurre noir in it's most basic form is just melted butter cooked until the milk solids start to turn a dark brown, that's it. Used as a 'sauce' for fish amongst other things.


The black butter referenced above is basically a jam.


http://www.jerseyblackbutter.com/


Confusing I know, but they're two totally different things.

Rechuchote

Zut alors! Quel bordel de confitures!

Gloomtastic!

Rechuchote wrote: »

YouTube has a bunch of different flavoured beurre noir recipes. Does the Irish one list ingredients?

Armagh Bramley Apple (53%)
Brown Sugar
Treacle
Apple Cider
Brandy
Spices
Natural liquorice flavouring

If you're making pressies, it's just something different.

Rechuchote

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Armagh Bramley Apple (53%)
Brown Sugar
Treacle
Apple Cider
Brandy
Spices
Natural liquorice flavouring

If you're making pressies, it's just something different.

Mmmmm.

By the way, does anyone know if there's somewhere in Dublin selling these Weck jars? https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01CCJI6CA/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1_1_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

Gloomtastic!

Rechuchote wrote: »

Mmmmm.

By the way, does anyone know if there's somewhere in Dublin selling these Weck jars? https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01CCJI6CA/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1_1_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

IKEA?

Rechuchote

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

IKEA?

Ms Google answered it for me. Alpack in Sandyford have them, and cheaper than Amazon https://www.alpack.ie/categories.html?filter_set[]=8,350

Lady Haywire

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Can i store apples in syrup in jars? Already have about 200 unbruised in paper but after last night i've another heap on the ground. Wondering if i cored & sliced, could I jar them for storage?

Got round to trying out a recipe yesterday, peeled & chopped up apples into cubes, then stuffed them into jars. Made up a syrup with water, sugar, cornflour allspice, cinnamon, dash of salt & lemon juice at the end.
Poured this over the apples, making sure they were all surrounded , capped them & put them into a stock pot with water up to the lids, brought to the boil & kept just under the boil for 20 mins. Then left to cool. The vacuum tops all went down on the jars so seems to have been a success :pac:
It is a tasty mix, though lacking something, just not sure what. Whole cloves maybe.

Rechuchote

Maybe vanilla too? Why the cornflour?

Lady Haywire

Rechuchote wrote: »

Maybe vanilla too? Why the cornflour?

Half followed a recipe and it was in it, assume it's to be used as a pie filling or that. Nice consistency going on top of the apples anyway, would be lovely heated up with ice cream!

Rechuchote

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Half followed a recipe and it was in it, assume it's to be used as a pie filling or that. Nice consistency going on top of the apples anyway, would be lovely heated up with ice cream!

Mmm, affogato con úlla