A question about setting jam

Used all the damsons (a gift) to make jam, sadly no gin!
Couldn't understand why jam made with 'beet' sugar was less successful, chatted to my neighbour also a jam-maker (she once lived near Tiptree!!!) who said not to use it..... did she have insider information, I wonder?
Have never tried butters but my old, reliable preserves recipe book has recipes for butters, cheeses and pastes! I'm put off when I read that their 'keeping' qualities are poor!
Damson was my Dad's favourite too so the whole 'jamming' business takes me back.
Memories of picking blackberries with Dad, an ambulance driver who noted good spots as he drove around, altho we never picked from roadsides even when there was hardly any traffic. Sadly I don't have my Mum's old jam pan, it was extremely heavy, I seem to think it was brass. Later she used a large aluminium catering pan ( the sort seen in old school canteens!) I didn't want that one!

Used all the damsons (a gift) to make jam, sadly no gin!
Couldn't understand why jam made with 'beet' sugar was less successful, chatted to my neighbour also a jam-maker (she once lived near Tiptree!!!) who said not to use it..... did she have insider information, I wonder?
Have never tried butters but my old, reliable preserves recipe book has recipes for butters, cheeses and pastes! I'm put off when I read that their 'keeping' qualities are poor!
Damson was my Dad's favourite too so the whole 'jamming' business takes me back.
Memories of picking blackberries with Dad, an ambulance driver who noted good spots as he drove around, altho we never picked from roadsides even when there was hardly any traffic. Sadly I don't have my Mum's old jam pan, it was extremely heavy, I seem to think it was brass. Later she used a large aluminium catering pan ( the sort seen in old school canteens!) I didn't want that one!

Used all the damsons (a gift) to make jam, sadly no gin!
Couldn't understand why jam made with 'beet' sugar was less successful, chatted to my neighbour also a jam-maker (she once lived near Tiptree!!!) who said not to use it..... did she have insider information, I wonder?
Have never tried butters but my old, reliable preserves recipe book has recipes for butters, cheeses and pastes! I'm put off when I read that their 'keeping' qualities are poor!
Damson was my Dad's favourite too so the whole 'jamming' business takes me back.
Memories of picking blackberries with Dad, an ambulance driver who noted good spots as he drove around, altho we never picked from roadsides even when there was hardly any traffic. Sadly I don't have my Mum's old jam pan, it was extremely heavy, I seem to think it was brass. Later she used a large aluminium catering pan ( the sort seen in old school canteens!) I didn't want that one!

Used all the damsons (a gift) to make jam, sadly no gin!
Couldn't understand why jam made with 'beet' sugar was less successful, chatted to my neighbour also a jam-maker (she once lived near Tiptree!!!) who said not to use it..... did she have insider information, I wonder?
Have never tried butters but my old, reliable preserves recipe book has recipes for butters, cheeses and pastes! I'm put off when I read that their 'keeping' qualities are poor!
Damson was my Dad's favourite too so the whole 'jamming' business takes me back.
Memories of picking blackberries with Dad, an ambulance driver who noted good spots as he drove around, altho we never picked from roadsides even when there was hardly any traffic. Sadly I don't have my Mum's old jam pan, it was extremely heavy, I seem to think it was brass. Later she used a large aluminium catering pan ( the sort seen in old school canteens!) I didn't want that one!

Now why am I having trouble posting this?

Sorry about that posting 'Mechanism'gone mad!

It happens to me sometimes, it's the downside of no delete button on gransnet.

Link to a version of my 'long-handled heat diffuser thingy' rowantree !

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003LXFGSY/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=479289247&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000LCNLNA&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=0SY3NB13KZYJ1GTZJ9BE

Yes, to fruit cheese, which if cooked long and hard enough keeps for years. No to the butters which don't, yes to the leathers which do. I now make fruit leathers in my dehydrator though.

If you make fruit cheese please make sure you set it in something with a wide neck, as I have made some that has been impossible to extract from the jars I stupidly put it in.

rowantree I love hedgerow jam. Elderberries form a large part of our diet, I make loads of cordial every year but some always ends up in jam, it gives it such a distinctive taste.

Re the wrinkle test, sometimes jam wrinkles ok, then when you put it back in the fridge with another splodge on the plate just in case you will see that the wrinkled jam has settled back into place. So I never trust the first wrinkles. Until the inroads made by spoon or finger stay there, it's not ready as far as I am concerned.

Thanks for the info about your diffuser, janerowena. Unfortunately I can't buy one - we are having our kitchen re-fitted and have plumped for a ceramic hob instead of a gas one this time. It will take me a while to get used to how it works but apparently I can't use a diffuser with it.

I don't have a dehydrator or room for one. What do you use it for and could you achieve the same results in a very low oven? The recipe I saw for a plum leather on the programme about sweets suggested putting it in a VERY low oven for 10 hours.

As to wrinkles -we never know if we've got it right. I didn't realise about the inroads made by spoon or finger. So the jam should stay where it is if you trail a spoon through it and not ooze back, is that right?

We're going to Herefordshire for a few days at the end of the week. There's a place we know where there are lots of damsons to forage. Last year we were a bit late with them but this year we've booked a week or so earlier and I'm hoping they will be better.However, some people are reporting that fruit's ripened a few weeks earlier this year so it might be too late already!

You should be ok, there's still a fair bit on the trees around here and we were hotter and further on than Wisley!

Yes, permanent inroads. If you get wrinkles, but then tip the plate on its side and the jam slides down, it's still not ready. Unless you like really runny jam that doesn't keep for more than a year.

Dehydrator - we did have a thread a while back. Cherry tomatoes from the garden when I have a glut, which are then saved and added to goat's cheese tarts. It intensifies the flavour. I buy mushrooms in bulk and dry them to add to casseroles. Apples become rings. Excess cheddar in danger of going mouldy gets dried and finely grated to become parmesan-like (nicer IMO). Oranges in slices for xmas decorations, herbs can be dried in minutes.

Excess apple sauce becomes fruit leather. You could do the same with runny jam.

I had never heard of fruit leather (odd name for something that is probably delicious!).
Is it a bit softer than dried fruit?

That's good timing - I have just finished clearing up after a full day of making elderberry cordial in industrial quantities. I hauled my son off to the woods and we picked two whole large plastic trugs full. I have just found out that I don't have enough sugar to finish off making it!

Fruit leather. I seem to remember there was a long chewy sweet that was similar. It's chewy, but not too hard. You spread it on a sheet, mine goes on the plastic base of my dehydrator, and cut it into slices when it has dried out. It's sweet and chewy and people in America take it hiking for extra energy, without colouring and additives. It's fruit puree with sugar, basically. You can make savoury ones, but I'm not keen. Never dry a turnip. They are foul.

Do you mean a white turnip tinged with pink, janerowena?

Or a yellow swede (also called a 'turnip' by them folks down in the West Country)?

The fruity thing sounds delicious but very calorific!

The white ones. I grew so many one year and for once the mice didn't eat them, that I decided to make crisps in the dehydrator and some thicker slices for casseroles. The crisps were fine, nothing special, the thicker slices were horrible. Just too intensely earthy without the sweetness of beetroot - or indeed swede.

Yes, the leathers are very calorific. But if you have leftover fruit sauce and the hydrator going with something else, it's free sweets.

I must think about buying one (DH will do his nut, more kitchen gadgets).

I love veg crisps, especially beetroot.

Me too. Courgettes are nice too, with a little soy sauce... I am addicted to apple rings, actually. And banana chips.

Making some courgette (well more of a marrow) chutney. I couldn't find a recipe I liked so have made my own up. It is taking a very very long time to get to the 'valley' point!

My damson one did, too. It's a fine line between simmering and being a bit slow, and simmering faster and burning the stuff.

It has taken nearly all day, on and off, what with all the peeling, chopping etc. Very slow simmering (3 and three quarter hours!) but it did reach the recommended valley point eventually. It felt like going on a car journey with the DC - 'Are we there yet?'
It is now in the jars and will have to stay there for three months.

What you might call 'slow food'.

But worth it.... Yes, I reckon that with my large pan full to the brim, it will take a good four hours to simmer it down.

The Spanish originally turned their tomatoes into jam, I am very tempted to try that one year.