Jam: A Picture Filled Tutorial

Over the course of the last month I have had the chance to get a lot of free perishable food, mostly fruits and veggies. I decided to try my hand at canning a few different things to help preserve the food I had received. Following is a siple tutorial to making what I like to call, Pleach-A-Rine jelly. It is composed of Plumb, Peach, and Nectarine.

Enjoy!

First I have a picture with all my materials, you can see a few different fruits which I will explain in the next pic. I also have knives and a cutting board.









Here you will see my selection of fruit. Top row is peaches, middle is nectarine, and bottom is 2 types of plumb.










So lets get started. Slice your fruit into wedges. You can now see why I had 2 knives, the white one goes right through the pit and all.









Next you will peel your wedges. The peeling can get tough and chewy, so you want to get it all off. A sharp knife is a must for this step.









Here you can see my plumb is wedged and peeled, this is what you are aiming for.











I don't have a pic, but you want to cut up the peeled wedges into tiny pieces and perhaps even mash them a bit with a potato masher.


You will then want to add 1/4 cup of lemon juice, or if you are like me and don't have any, squeeze some limes into the pot of cut up fruit.









Next, mix in a separate bowl, a pack of pectin, and 1/2 cup sugar.











Put your pot of fruit on the burner and start to warm. As is warms add the Pectin/Sugar mix a little at a time.










Stir, stir, stir! make sure it does not burn. You want to stir until the mixture becomes liquidy and is at a rolling boil. This is when you cannot stir the boil away. Mix in sugar to taste, sometimes as much as 3 cups is needed.






Pour into jars, then into the boiler to boil for 5 minutes.












That is it, very simple, great starting point for beginners, and the Jam is the best jam I have ever tasted.

Hope you enjoy!