JAM-MAKING TIME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22627, 15 January 1937, Page 3

JAM-MAKING TIME

HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE NEW FRUIT COMBINATIONS POINTS TO REMEMBER Jam-making time is round again. In some way* this important household task has lost some of its trials, for the housewife no longer seems to make such enormous quantities of jam at the one boiling. She prefers rather te make smaller and more varied batches, and as a general rule she obtains better results. Certainly this is true as far as jelly-making is concerned, for the smaller boilings seem to be much more successful. Of course, it is no longer essential that all jam should he continuously stirred, and that certainly is all to the credit of modern jam-making methods.

.Nowadays, when the housewife begins making jam, she also becomes a chemist, while one might almost describe her as a student of bacteriology when she begins bottling fruit, for the modern approach to this household task is quit© definitely scientific. It is of primary importance to start with the right quantities of fruit, sugar and wat-er if that is necessary. At the same time, the housewife should look to the shape of her preserving pan, and remember that if this is wide and shallow evaporation will be a little more rapid; while if it is deep and somewhat narrow, then the boiling must be repaid to prevent any danger of a watery jam.

Then, too, the comparative thickness or thinness of the preserving pan must be considered. Those light thin pans are certainly a great convenience when it comes to handling, but while the jam is cooking it requires special care to prevent any tendency to burn. There is little danger of this when the bottom of the pan is particularly thick, but again it should bo remembered that the jam will take more cooking before it reaches setting point. Effect of Weather on Setting

Another matter which the scientific jam-maker must taken into consideration is the season and the kind of weather experienced at the time the fruit was forming and ripening. This not only affects the flavour of the jam, but it also means a variation in the amount of water used, while it affects, too, the set of the jam. That is to say, in a wet season fruits that are as a rule rich in pectin will not give such good results to the pectin test; while those which as a rule are deficient in pectin will certainly need either the addition of some such fruit as lemons, red currants or gooseberries, or artificial pectin, if any kind of a set is to be obtained.

It is quite an easy matter to determine what is called the pectin "clot" in any fruit by a simple experiment. Take a small quantity of the fruit, and allow it with a little liquid to simmer slowly for some 15 or 20 minutes. Then put one teaspoonful of the juice into a cup and allow it to become quite cold; add three teaspoonsful of methylated spirits, and finally give this mixture a stir or a shake. It should be easy to see the pectin clot which will have formed. If the fruits contain a good percentage of pectin, then the clot will be well formed and heavy, but if the fruit is deficient in pectin, then the juice will only form a broken clot.

Popularity of Mixed-fruit Jams

It is probably the fact that the housewife now has the scientific knowledge that certain fruits will not set of themselves that has led her to make so many of the mixed-fruit jams. Certainly these seem to be increasingly popular, and indeed give an adventurous housewife plenty of opportunities for experiment. To "obtain the best results it is necessary that a fruit deficient in pectin should be combined with one that is rich in this substance. For instance, few housewives try to make strawberry jam on its own without the addition of some pectin preparation or else combining it with some other fruit. Lemon juice definitely improves strawberry jam by reducing its somewhat cloying sweetness and also making it more likely to set. The juice of two lemons to about seven pounds of fruit is about the right proportion. Gooseberry juice, too, can be used with succes in the making of strawberry jam in the proportion of the juice of a pound of green gooseberries (cooked without water and pressed through a sieve) to every four pounds of strawberries. Some people may like to try pineapple with strawberries. Equal weight of both fruits is needed and the pineapple must be cut into very small cubes and then the fruit* boiled together with an equal amount of sugar to that of both fruits conv bined.

The apple and blackberry combination is well known: that of loganberries with cherry is less usual, however, and the sot of this jam is less certain to that, say, of cherries combined with lemon and orange juice in the proportion of the juice of half an orange and half a lemon to a pound of cherries. Loganberries and cherries are combined in a proportion of three poiuds of loganberries to six pounds of cherries. Another well-known combination is that of raspberries and red currants. Red currant juice can be added to strawberries to make a splendid jam, as they cau also be used with cherries successfully. By the way, those people who dislike raspberry jam merely because of the seeds in it might well try to make raspberry jelly. The fruit should be packed into a large jar and a breakfasteup of either red currant or rhubarb juice poured over them and left to stand in a -rather cool oven for several hours until all the juice is drawn from the fruit. The juice should then be strained and a pound of sugar to each pint of juice allowed in the cooking.