Blackberry Jam/Jelly
- Thread starter sojourner
- Start date
Yep, sojourner, back when I first got an allotment, I made dozens and dozens of cans, jars, bottles of stuff...and I had the kit too...as well as a special pantry area under the stairs. Over the years though, I have lost, broke or just no longer use 90% of the tat I had accumulated (such as preprinted labels ffs, fancy kilner jars and really spendy juice bottles with those Grolsch type lids... and so on. It's all a bit more slapdash, these days. Best investment was a huge and solid preserving pan which can hold a good 15litres...and my eldest made me a giant jam spoon with a catch on it for resting against the pan edge. Will find camera laters.
We've got a pantry. I grew up with one. They are bloody brilliant spaces, nice and dark and cool even in the summer. That's where my jam and brandy are living right now
I got the dirt cheap jars from Wilkinsons - was gonna use some old pasta sauce jars that a mate gave me but got para about them being clean/non-greasy enough. Wilkos do 12 300ml jars for £6 so that's well alright innit? That is a lot of tat
I used to pick up Grolsch bottles outside pubs years ago for my home brew 
Any old jars will so, soj. Just wash them out and whack them in the oven (you need hot jars when transferring jams). Those little waxed paper circles are good though as they melt and creat a good airproof seal. Topped off with a dust-cover (I use brown paper and an elastic if I have no cellophane ones), jars will keep for years.
Sterilising the bottles for ketchup is a pain as they are too tall to go in the preserving pan as a waterbath. I am having longing thoughts of a dedicated pasteuriser (and if juicing is a goer, I may even stump up for one).
Sterilising the bottles for ketchup is a pain as they are too tall to go in the preserving pan as a waterbath. I am having longing thoughts of a dedicated pasteuriser (and if juicing is a goer, I may even stump up for one).
a_chap
When the world came apart, where were you?
Forgive me if I'm stating the bleedin' obvious but don't waste your money on one of those electric-rotating-shreds-and-centrifuges-juice juicers. Get a press.
I did all of that with them and used the lil wax circles. My mother used to use cellophane and a laccy band
Is there a tip for ladling jam into jars whereby you don't end up with jam fucking EVERYWHERE?
Here you go, a_chap - a homemade press. It is the making pomace (scrattling) which is an issue for me - have to get the welding kit out.
And here is the ketchup scenario - including the million tomatoes being boiled, then put through a sieve and finally rendered down into sauce
And just because I love her, one of Gdd with the cake she made
Ignore the imbecile spelling of 'kutchen' (ffs)
I use a pyrex jug to scoop the hot jam out of the pan, then transfer to jars...but it is a messy business for sure.I did all of that with them and used the lil wax circles. My mother used to use cellophane and a laccy band
Is there a tip for ladling jam into jars whereby you don't end up with jam fucking EVERYWHERE?
And here is the ketchup scenario - including the million tomatoes being boiled, then put through a sieve and finally rendered down into sauce
And just because I love her, one of Gdd with the cake she made
Ignore the imbecile spelling of 'kutchen' (ffs)
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a_chap
When the world came apart, where were you?
Our local orchard-minders have a cider press that they make available for anyone to use. For scratting they basically dump all the apples into a wood chipper similar to this:
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Just made 6litres of ketchup. Massive sigh of relief that the tomato sauce project is over for another year. It takes a crazy amount of tomatoes to make a litre of ketchup - around 4 kilos. So, back in March, I sow 70 or so plants, keep the best 40 and spend the summer endlessly tying in, nipping out, weeding then picking I have (fleetingly) been tempted to add some arrowroot or something as reducing the sauce to a nice gloopy consistency takes ages...and there is that tricky period where it looks, and acts, like a volcanic eruption - hot blobs of sauce escaping the pan. I don't have a recipe but generally sugar, cinnamon, paprika and cider vinegar go in the mix, with various experimental additions. This years is really top drawer...which always leaves me with a dilemma. Give lots away and enjoy the praise basking...or hoard it for myself.
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Baronage-Phase
Well-Known Member
Picked a few blackberries at work and decided to have a walk around to see how many blackberry bushes there were.
Loads of them.
So we will be doing a jam making project with the home ec teacher. Making jam, making butter and baking brown bread. All culminating in a feast of jammy buttered bread.
Loads of them.
So we will be doing a jam making project with the home ec teacher. Making jam, making butter and baking brown bread. All culminating in a feast of jammy buttered bread.
