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General Directions for Jam-making

A method for making jam by cooking equal parts fruit and sugar until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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General Directions for Jam-making

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the fruit and weigh it.

  2. Measure an equal quantity of sugar.

  3. Heat the sugar as for jelly.

Make the jam

  1. Cook the fruit, mashing it with a wooden spoon while cooking.

  2. Stir the fruit to prevent burning for 30 minutes or until soft.

  3. Add the heated sugar to the fruit.

  4. Cook the mixture for 20 minutes or more until thick.

Jar and cool

  1. Put the jam into heated, sterilized jars or glasses.

  2. Cool the jam.

  3. Cover the jam as for jelly.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Fruit
Provides the body, flavour and pectin-bearing pulp that thickens as the jam cooks down.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, with the cooking, helps the jam set into a thick spread.

The step that matters

Stirring the fruit while it cooks. Fruit sugars and pulp scorch easily on the bottom of the pan, which gives a burnt taste. Stirring constantly and mashing the fruit as it softens keeps heat even and breaks it down evenly before the sugar is added.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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