Making Jam

Today's endeavor was making jam.  We are lucky enough to have a truck come once a week to our small town loaded down with fresh fruit and veggies from B.C.  This week I bought a big bunch of sweet cherries and some apricots. Strawberries and cases of mangoes were on sale at the grocery store so I got some of those as well.

The recipes that come in the boxes of Certo contain so much sugar that I thought I would try to lessen it and see how it affects the overall quality of the jam.  I suspect it might not set up as thick, but I would sacrifice a little thickness for less sugar.

No-Cook Cherry Jam

4 cups chopped, pitted sweet cherries (I munched them up in the food processor)
2  Tbsp lemon juice
2 cups sugar (it was 3 cups)
1 box Certo light Pectin crystals

Put the prepared cherries into a bowl.  Add lemon juice.

Measure sugar and set aside.

Combine fruit pectin crystals with 1/4 cup of the measured sugar.

Add pectin mixture to fruit, mixing well.  Let stand for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in remaining sugar and continue stirring for 3 minutes until the sugar has dissolved.

Pour into clean jars or plastic freezer containers.  Cover with tight lids and let stand at room temperature until set (may take up to 24 hours).  With no-cook jams your jars do not need to be sterilized.

Store in freezer.  If used within 3 weeks, jam may be stored in refrigerator.
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No-Cook Strawberry Mango Jam

1 1/2 cups crushed mango (about 3 fully ripe mangos)
3/4 cup crushed strawberries
2 cups sugar (recipe called for 5)
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 pouch Certo liquid pectin

Measure prepared fruit into a large bowl.

Add sugar to fruit and mix will.  Let stand 10 minutes.

Stir in liquid fruit pectin and lemon juice.

Continue to stir for 3 minutes to dissolve the sugar.

Pour into clean jars or plastic freezer containers and cover with tight lids and let stand at room temperature until set (may take up to 24 hours).

Store in freezer.  If used within 3 weeks, jams may be stored in refrigerator.
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My cherry jam appears to be setting up nicely but the Strawberry Mango jam needs work.  It tastes good but I may have cut the sugar back too far because it is still runny.  Oh well, it'll make a nice syrup for pancakes.  I may attempt an apricot jam or apricot cherry jam tomorrow.