For every 2 pounds of prepared fruit, add 4 oz. sugar (a gently rounded half-cup is 4 oz.) and combine in a large bowl. Scale as necessary; I usually do 6 pounds fruit and 12 oz. sugar, which gets me about 10-12 half-pint jars of jam, depending on how much I reduce the jam. Cover fruit-sugar mixture and transfer to the refrigerator to macerate. Let sit overnight, or up to 24 hours.

In truth, I’ve left my sugared fruit for a few days in the fridge and there’s never been any harm done. That’s another reason I like this method. Sometimes it’s very nice to be able to put fruit “on pause” for a day or two until you can get it in a jar. After 12-24 hours, the sugar should be mostly dissolved and the fruit should have released quite a bit of juice.

Prepare jars and lids as for standard water bath canning. Keep spotlessly clean half-pint or pint jars warm in a large pot of simmering water. Have new lids and clean bands ready. Have a clean lint-free towel or paper towel available to wipe jars. If you are new to water bath canning, I recommend you read this to get a feel for the basic procedures and precautions you must take to ensure you are creating a safe product. Transfer the fruit, sugar and all the juices to a large, very wide, shallow pan. Something like a huge saute pan is good. You want as much surface area of the preserve exposed as possible to allow for the fastest evaporation of excess water from the preserve. If you have more fruit than you have pan, divide your fruit and juice as evenly as possible among pans, or work in batches.

Bring the macerated fruit and juices to a simmer over medium heat. Stir frequently, you do not want your fruit to scorch. When your fruit has softened but not fallen apart, add in your lemon or lime juice, 1 tablespoon for every 2 pounds of fruit initially prepared.

Also add in your Dry Zing component, if using. Use ¼ teaspoon for each initial 2 pounds prepared fruit unless you are using a really potent spice like cloves. Then use less. Stir.

At this point you have to decide what kind of texture you want your preserve to have. If the texture in the pan is too chunky or the pieces are too large, crush your fruit with a potato masher or puree as desired with an immersion blender. I like a quite chunky texture but this is entirely personal.

Take a small spoon of preserve, including some fruit and a bit of syrup together if your preserve is chunky, and taste them. Is your jam sweet enough? Does it need more sugar?

If your preserve is tart at this point, add a bit more sugar, up to an additional 4 oz. (another rounded ½ cup) for every 2 pounds of fruit initially prepared. You may need even more sugar if you are cooking something quite tart, like quince, currants or gooseberries. Trust your judgement. If you think the preserve needs more sugar, add it. If it is sweet enough to your taste, leave it alone. Remember that as you cook the preserve longer the flavors, including the sugar, will taste more concentrated. Stir everything gently but consistently.

When your preserve is glossy, a bit darkened and looks slightly thickened, transfer a bit of jam to a cool (ideally refrigerated) plate. If you run your finger through a dollop of jam on a cool plate and the finger mark remains visible or runs together only very slowly, the jam has reached the soft spoonable stage I prefer.

At this point, add the Wet Zing flavoring if desired, using 1 tablespoon for every 2 pounds of fruit initially prepared. If using a flavor extract, like vanilla or almond, use only 1 teaspoon and adjust to taste. Strength of extracts varies considerably by brand and you don’t want to overdo it. Most of the Wet Zing components have flavor compounds that are quite volatile and should be added towards the end of the cooking time lest their flavor evaporate away.

Stir well, taste jam one last time (clean spoon, please!) and make any final adjustments to the sugar level. You may also add additional citrus juice at this point, if desired. If a preserve tastes like it just needs a little something, usually that something is a few drops of lemon juice. No kidding.

At this point, keep your preserve at a bare simmer and proceed to fill and lid your jars as per standard water bath canning procedure. Remember to wipe the rims of your jars before setting lids! Process half-pint or pint jars of jam for 10 minutes at a full rolling boil.

A word about texture: a jam made in this pectin-free manner will not give you the firm, high mounded spoon look of a pectin jam. The thickness does not come from gelling the moisture in the preserve, but from reducing excess water out of it (this is why using a wide, shallow pan is so important).

Preserves made this way will give you a French-style, soft jam, thicker than syrup or ice cream topping but not so thick as to allow a spoon to stand upright in the jar, as is the case with many pectin-set jams. I find this texture to be more sophisticated, frankly. The depth of flavor and slightly caramelized tones that come from lower water content, longer cooking and reduced sugar content can’t be beat.

And because you are liberated from the chains of the pectin recipe you can have some fun with creating flavors all your own. The only caveat is that your jam, to stay safely water bath can-able, must stay high-acid, with a ph of 4.6 or less.

Have you made pectin-free jam or are you dedicated to the box?

It’s unofficial Preserve Week here at Northwest Edible Life. I know because my floor is sticky with canning syrup and my refrigerator smells like pickle brine. It’s hard for me to think of anything else but putting food by right now, so I’m going to be talking jams and pickles all week long. I hope you enjoy this week’s line up of preserving posts. If you like what you read here, you might want to join over 1600 other readers who have NW Edible blog posts delivered automatically to their favorite reader or email inbox. It’s free, convenient and helps ensure you don’t miss anything. Thanks for reading!

ADDING ZING TO YOUR JAM There is nothing wrong with a jam that has nothing but fruit, sugar and a bit of lemon in it. The sublime simplicity of pure strawberry has a lot going for it, for example. But when you are ready to get creative with jam making, it is possible to turn a simple fruit preserve into something of a food statement. All you need to do is add a bit of flavor zing to enhance the fruit.

CREATE YOUR OWN SIGNATURE JAM BY MIXING AND MATCHING FLAVORS August 13, 2012 by Erica 49 Comments | Affiliate disclosure It’s unofficial Preserve Week here at Northwest Edible Life. I know because my floor is sticky with canning syrup and my refrigerator smells like pickle brine. It’s hard for me to think of anything else but putting food by right now, so I’m going to be talking jams and pickles all week long. I hope you enjoy this week’s line up of preserving posts. If you like what you read here, you might want to join over 1600 other readers who have NW Edible blog posts delivered automatically to their favorite reader or email inbox. It’s free, convenient and helps ensure you don’t miss anything. Thanks for reading! ADDING ZING TO YOUR JAM There is nothing wrong with a jam that has nothing but fruit, sugar and a bit of lemon in it. The sublime simplicity of pure strawberry has a lot going for it, for example. But when you are ready to get creative with jam making, it is possible to turn a simple fruit preserve into something of a food statement. All you need to do is add a bit of flavor zing to enhance the fruit. Then you start to develop flavors like… Pear with Ginger and Rum Strawberry with Black Pepper and Balsamic Sweet Cherry with Mint and Kirsch Nectarine with Lime and Cointreau Plum with Cardamom and Port Wine Apricot with Vanilla and Earl Grey Tea

I tend to think of jam flavoring options as either Dry Zings or Wet Zings. Dry Zings include ground spices, citrus zests or dried herbs and are typically added in small quantity towards the beginning of the jam-cooking process. Wet Zings are liquids like alcohols and liquors, vinegars, maple syrup or citrus juices. They are added in slightly larger volume and are added towards the end of jam making to keep their flavors bright.

CREATE YOUR OWN SIGNATURE JAM BY MIXING AND MATCHING FLAVORS August 13, 2012 by Erica 49 Comments | Affiliate disclosure It’s unofficial Preserve Week here at Northwest Edible Life. I know because my floor is sticky with canning syrup and my refrigerator smells like pickle brine. It’s hard for me to think of anything else but putting food by right now, so I’m going to be talking jams and pickles all week long. I hope you enjoy this week’s line up of preserving posts. If you like what you read here, you might want to join over 1600 other readers who have NW Edible blog posts delivered automatically to their favorite reader or email inbox. It’s free, convenient and helps ensure you don’t miss anything. Thanks for reading! ADDING ZING TO YOUR JAM There is nothing wrong with a jam that has nothing but fruit, sugar and a bit of lemon in it. The sublime simplicity of pure strawberry has a lot going for it, for example. But when you are ready to get creative with jam making, it is possible to turn a simple fruit preserve into something of a food statement. All you need to do is add a bit of flavor zing to enhance the fruit. Then you start to develop flavors like… Pear with Ginger and Rum Strawberry with Black Pepper and Balsamic Sweet Cherry with Mint and Kirsch Nectarine with Lime and Cointreau Plum with Cardamom and Port Wine Apricot with Vanilla and Earl Grey Tea I tend to think of jam flavoring options as either Dry Zings or Wet Zings. Dry Zings include ground spices, citrus zests or dried herbs and are typically added in small quantity towards the beginning of the jam-cooking process. Wet Zings are liquids like alcohols and liquors, vinegars, maple syrup or citrus juices. They are added in slightly larger volume and are added towards the end of jam making to keep their flavors bright. I have found that adding one Dry Zing and one complimentary Wet Zing to my basic preserve tends to give me just the right level of creative, appealing flavor without getting into that land of “yeah, that’s just…too much” that can happen when too many flavors are competing. However, just adding either a dry or wet zing is a great way to dip your toe into the world of Signature Jams, too.

I’ve been putting together a remarkably geekish list detailing Dry Zing and Wet Zing options by fruit. These are flavors that will, when used in appropriate quantity and paired appropriately, taste good with the fruit they are supporting.

The list is by no means exhaustive, it’s just my opinion on what spices and herbs and alcohols one can add to particular fruit preserves. It focuses on the fruits I preserve as jams most, and so does not include things like citrus or tropical fruits, which are rarely available in my area except through traditional (expensive-ish) commercial channels,

CREATE YOUR OWN SIGNATURE JAM BY MIXING AND MATCHING FLAVORS August 13, 2012 by Erica 49 Comments | Affiliate disclosure It’s unofficial Preserve Week here at Northwest Edible Life. I know because my floor is sticky with canning syrup and my refrigerator smells like pickle brine. It’s hard for me to think of anything else but putting food by right now, so I’m going to be talking jams and pickles all week long. I hope you enjoy this week’s line up of preserving posts. If you like what you read here, you might want to join over 1600 other readers who have NW Edible blog posts delivered automatically to their favorite reader or email inbox. It’s free, convenient and helps ensure you don’t miss anything. Thanks for reading! ADDING ZING TO YOUR JAM There is nothing wrong with a jam that has nothing but fruit, sugar and a bit of lemon in it. The sublime simplicity of pure strawberry has a lot going for it, for example. But when you are ready to get creative with jam making, it is possible to turn a simple fruit preserve into something of a food statement. All you need to do is add a bit of flavor zing to enhance the fruit. Then you start to develop flavors like… Pear with Ginger and Rum Strawberry with Black Pepper and Balsamic Sweet Cherry with Mint and Kirsch Nectarine with Lime and Cointreau Plum with Cardamom and Port Wine Apricot with Vanilla and Earl Grey Tea I tend to think of jam flavoring options as either Dry Zings or Wet Zings. Dry Zings include ground spices, citrus zests or dried herbs and are typically added in small quantity towards the beginning of the jam-cooking process. Wet Zings are liquids like alcohols and liquors, vinegars, maple syrup or citrus juices. They are added in slightly larger volume and are added towards the end of jam making to keep their flavors bright. I have found that adding one Dry Zing and one complimentary Wet Zing to my basic preserve tends to give me just the right level of creative, appealing flavor without getting into that land of “yeah, that’s just…too much” that can happen when too many flavors are competing. However, just adding either a dry or wet zing is a great way to dip your toe into the world of Signature Jams, too. I’ve been putting together a remarkably geekish list detailing Dry Zing and Wet Zing options by fruit. These are flavors that will, when used in appropriate quantity and paired appropriately, taste good with the fruit they are supporting. The list is by no means exhaustive, it’s just my opinion on what spices and herbs and alcohols one can add to particular fruit preserves. It focuses on the fruits I preserve as jams most, and so does not include things like citrus or tropical fruits, which are rarely available in my area except through traditional (expensive-ish) commercial channels. Do yourself a favor and don’t try to combine multiple spices and boozes like some sort of crazed Swedish Chef of jam making until you have a few solid crowd pleasers, like Blueberry-Cinnamon or Apricot with Nutmeg and Bourbon or Blackberry with Lemon Zest and Grand Marnier under your belt.

Then you can start to really have fun and experiment with some more unusual flavors, like Strawberry with Cocoa and Framboise or Pear with Curry and Maple Syrup or Apple with Rosemary and Calvados.