Help! I'm in the middle of Aleta's Peach Jam w/liq pectin - shouldn't it gel some before canning???

M

mariadnoca

Moderator
The last few times I made jam I didn't use pectin, so I forget how it's suppose to work. I followed the timing, but in putting in in jars -- it's super liquid. When I added the pectin nothing changed texture wise. Is this how it's suppose to work with pectin and it will gel later??

If not, any ideas on how to fix this?

 
oh I wish I couild heop. My recollection is that when it starts to cool, the gel starts to form.

It sure can be unnerving. If what I am saying is correct, you won't know until you have canned it.

 
You should see SOME spoon coating but you'll also see more dramatic jelling as it cools. Have you

tried the frozen plate trick. That would be a good indicator.

 
Maria, for what it's worth, I made Ball's Hot Pepper Jelly last night...

it uses 2 packets of liquid pectin. It was VERY liquid when I put it into the jars but is quite firm this morning. Maybe even a bit more firm than I would usually like!!

How did your peach jam turn out?

 
texture does not change much and some jams look runnier than others. . .

If you followed the instructions, the hot jam/jelly will be liquid when pouring into jars. It does jell upon cooling; usually I see jell on the sides of the pan and on my stir-stick after jarring.

With the stuff in the packages, one is always told that instructions must be followed or you may not get jell. Think of boxed/packaged pectin as "foolproof" as long as the "fool" can follow instructions, versus the old-school way of merely combining fruit with sugar and cooking to the jell point, which requires a little more expertise. Every year I judge 4H kids that have no problem at all with packaged pectin jams.

Sometimes when I make jam from boxed pectin mix it comes out more firm than I like (Like you Barbara), so the next batch gets extra fruit or juice to make a softer set.

If you followed instructions, it should be just fine.

 
Well, I have chunky syrup - so guess it's ice cream toppping now...

I'm pretty sure I know what I did wrong. It said 5 cups of peaches/about 7 and I was so used to making jam w/o added pectin I just used 7 peaches and didn't measure how many cups it was = fail.

I had my frozen plates ready, but this was like water when I added the pectin. I canned two jars and thought, this isn't worth putting in jars till I fix it. And I thought about trying to cook it down, but I'd already added the pectin and wasn't sure it that would screw it up further...so, I've currently got a pot full of chunky peach syrup (it gelled to a thick syrup) and not sure what to do with so much of it.

Ideas?

 
And diid you know that you can re-process with more pectin. . .

and try again? I also suggest setting the jars aside for a while as they may set up more with some storage time.

 
I also remembered that if you are really desparate for some jam you can use Clear Jell. . .

to thicken it. If you try this you want the hot-set Clear Jell (original Clear Jell).

 
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