My first ever jam make

My first attempt at jam making

Well there is no point growing all the produce if I cant store it for the winter, its part of my plan to make jam. My first attempt at making jam turned out to be a bit like watching Jamie Oliver cook on Tv, bung this in add a bit of that give it a stir etc. 

After washing the plums I put them in a saucepan and realised I didn't know how much water to put in so I put about an inch of water in the saucepan, and "about" was the measurements from there onwards.  After the plums had cooked down to a mush and the stones were out, about half an hour, I turned them off and put them in a colander. So first thing is I kept the stones in because I read they help with the pectin, and secondly I didn't put through a sieve as I didn't want a smooth jam. After the plums had been passed through the colander and were in another saucepan I added sugar (just ordinary sugar), and again I hadn't measured the plums so I added about half sugar to plums ratio. After a few minutes I thought it would also be a good idea to add a splash of lemon juice, as I know this helps with the jam setting. While the plums and sugar were gently simmering on the stove I put a couple of jars in the dishwasher and left them in once the cycle had finished until I needed them.

When the plums and sugar had simmered for about half an hour, it was time to taste and test. Luckily despite not measuring anything the jam actually tasted like jam and I was very surprised. The next step was to jar the jam. I wasn't sure what the best process is for this so I did wing this a bit as well, there are so many different method out there. The jam set on the plate after about half an hour and was ready to be jarred.  I decided to take my sterilised jars out of the dishwasher and put the hot jam straight into them. After they were full about an inch from the top I put the lids straight onto the hot jars. I was hoping that the hot jam cooling would vacuum the jars tight making them air tight. Once the jam had cooled about a couple of hours, and with fingers crossed I pushed the button on the lid down. To my amazement once again it had worked the button didn't come back up and my jam is now air tight.

I have black berries and apples to make something out of and more plums to come, now I have overcome the fear of jam making the skies my limit. But I think I will fill the jars up higher so there isn't so much air left in them and need to find out which fruits have a high pectin content.