What are you canning now?

[Anna_B_Happy]

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Can you post the mango jam recipe? I have made 22 jars of blackberry and many jars of strawberry jam, already. Would love to do mango too.

Here you go. I had some of it the other night on my pork chop and it was heavenly. Mango has a good amount of natural pectin, I noticed this one set up pretty quickly.

4 cups peeled, chopped mango
1/2 cup lime juice (I used fresh squeezed limes - 4 of them gave me 1/2 cup juice)
2 3/4 cups sugar

Put the mango cubes and lime juice into a saucepot. Stirring often, simmer until the mango is tender. Remove from heat and mash the mango lightly with a potato masher. Add the sugar to the pan. Over medium heat, and boil the jam until a drop mounds in a chilled dish.

Ladle into prepared jars and water bath for 10 minutes.

I am making this next weekend....it is good to know it can be made without added pectin. I am avoiding pectin as much as possible this year as I am trying to buy local organic products as much as possible and not used processed foods. I do have pectin in my cupboard and use it when necessary, but try to avoid it as much as possible. It is also expensive over time if you can a lot. Thanks for the recipe.

 

[Anna_B_Happy]

Quote:
You probably have the hard pears, They won't soften but when they are yellowish and sweet, they are ripe.
The under ripe fruit makes a better jelly.
You can try wrapping them in newspaper and putting them in a paper bag overnight. Do not forget to check them or you will have a bag of mush.

last year I diced them up and mixed them with apple. I was able to skip the pectin. But you need to be comfortable with the sheeting off of a spoon method. It took a long time for me to get it down. There is a very accurate description of it in the ball canning book.
Get a package of certo or sure jell and follow the instructions. I have started to use the ball low sugar pectin because everything is starting to just get too sweet for me anymore.

Good luck with the pickles.

My friend had a pear tree back when i was in high school. The pears dont ripen on the tree. We would pick them very carefully and gently set them in a cardboard box to ripen in the basement (or some other cool dark place). Cover them with paper grocery bags or newspaper to ripen. Be careful as any dings or dents they suffer when hard wont show up until they soften, and then they will be bad bruises. So use extreme gentleness when picking and stacking them for storage.

After they soften up a bit in their newspaper wraps, you can them however you like. We used to poach them in vanilla syrup and they were awesome. Also pear jam with honey and ginger is divine. They were so good it was worth all the labor to handle them so carefully when picking them. Let me know if you need recipe ideas!

 

[rancher hicks]

Apparently no one makes red currant jelly. I 've been all over the internet and I can't figure out the pounds business. So I need to get a scale and some cheese cloth. There is a video for gooseberries on youtube.

 

[Anna_B_Happy]

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Ive never made it...sorry....hopefully there is info on the internet. I bought a OXO brand scale that will measure in both pounds and Kilos. Wasnt too expensive and I use it all the time (now that I have it).

 

[Anna_B_Happy]

I got to thinking that Christine Ferber has recipes for red currant and gooseberry....I have not made them, but love all her jams that i have made. Here you go:

Christine Ferber's Gooseberry Jam

2 1/2 pounds gooseberries
3 3/4 cups sugar
Juice of two lemons

Wash the gooseberries in cold water. Drain them and dry them in a towel. Rub them in a dry towel to remove their fuzz. Remove the stems and any remaining blossoms.

In preserving pan, mix gooseberries, sugar and lemon juice. Bring to simmer. Pour in ceramic bowl. Cover the fruit with a sheet of parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, bring this preparation to a full boil Continue cooking on high heat for about 10 minutes, stirring gently. Skim carefully. Return to boil. Check the set. Put the jam into jars immediately and seal.

 

[Anna_B_Happy]

Christine Ferber's red currant jelly

3 1/3 pounds currents, net after cleaning
4 2/3 cups sugar
7 ounces water
Juice of one lemon

Wash currents and remove from stem

Bring berries and water to a boil. Simmer five minutes. Collect juice by pushing through a fine sieve. Pour through cheesecloth to strain.

Put juice sugar and lemon juice in a pan and boil 5 mins.

Put into jars immediately and seal.


Also: she has a recipe where she substitues 7 oz of thyme honey for part of the sugar and adds two more lemons....Lemon thyme red current jelly!!

 

[Anna_B_Happy]

Finally, her red current jam:

2 1/4 pounds net currants
3 3/4 c sugar
juice of one lemon.

mix fruit sugar and lemon juice in a pan. bring to simmer. pour into ceramic bowl and let sit in fridge overnight. Next day, put mixture through a food mill to separate seeds and skin. Bring mixture to boil stirring gently. boil 5 mins. put jam into jars.

Hope this helps.

 

[chicken stalker]

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I use the no sugar pectin (pink box) and use the raspberry jelly recipe in the box. I won a blue ribbon at the broome county fair last year using the black current and that recipe.

 

[rancher hicks]

Thanks Anna,

I've found recipes but they aren't very well written out. There is a Youtube video for Gooseberry Jelly and that was good. I like simple. Now as I said the raspberries came out nice and the strawberry too. Neither did I use pectin in. I seem to recall the last time I made strawberry I used pectin and 7 cups of sugar. Way to much.

Anna , I'm glad yours do not use so much.

Chicken - Do you remember the brand on that no sugar stuff? I have friends who are diabetic and that would be good. The farm has all kinds of berries and I think I saw some black currants too.

I have an old set of scales in the garage I may try to make use of. The antique kind. I'll have to figure out how accurate it is.

Thanks everyone.

Rancher

 

[jenny_kap]

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we use one plate of soup full of fruits and 2 pounds of sugar. you mix the berries with sugar, let them rest for up to 24 hours and boil the jam. add a few slices of lemon or a few spoons of lemon juice.