Hi everyone! Last year I went on strike against HighFructose Corn Syrup in general and especially with Jam...so I made my own apricot, peach, and blackberry. I use my apricot and peach jams for cooking (glazes for salmon, chicken, pork, etc) and blakberry for toast. I used organic white grape juice (no HFCS) as a sweetner. I am wondering if anyone has a recipe they would like to share for tomatoe paste, ketchup, sauces, and, of course jam?
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One thing I like to do, is to mash up fruit like peaches or strawberries and spread them in a glass pie or cake pan and put them in the solar oven for awhile (haven't done it this year, I can't remember how long!!) until they thicken to the consistency of jam. No added sugars or pectin. You could experiment with spices, or if you felt like it needed sweetening you could add some honey at the end. This couldn't safely be canned but it could be frozen and it's a great thing to have around while the fruit is still freshly coming in.
Deb I got my basic recipe for fruit jams from National Home Preservation center, but I modified only slightly by reducing the sugar and I chose not to add pectin. Acceptable options, and they canned up fine in a boiling bath pot
The choice of no pectin is about the references to the better fruit flavor coming through without pectin. Certainly our peach and apricot jams taste like they just came from the tree (plus less sugar) so I think this worked to our satisfaction.
Here is the recipe - the ratios can be calculated if you have less or more fruit.
16 cups of peaches cubed (I always leave the skin on - my choice)
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 3/4 cups of organic cane sugar (just regularly sugar only organic and it is not white)
Put the sugar, lemon juice and fruit and any juice from cutting the peaches up in a large enough pot to allow for several inches of space - it will bubble up.
Bring to a boil and cook at least 30 minutes stirring frequently. You can allow this cook down as much as you like to thicken. My versions came out with a lot of syrup and I simply canned the extra syrup along with the fruit for use in cooking and making home made sodas (1 part peach syrup 3 parts cold sparkling water).
I would use a ladle to get as much fruit in the jar as possible then add extra syrup until I had put all fruit in jars, then jarred up the remaining syrup, and canned everything at once (hot pack). If syrup did not fill the last jar that was a refrigerator one for first use.
For us the early years of quart jars was a mistake (there are only 2 of us) and the slightly less sugar makes them a little more perishable once opened, so in subsequent years I chose 8 or 16 ounce jars. Processing time is 10 minutes for these kind of jams (no pectin) in a pint or half-pint size. They have proven to be shelf-stable for 2-3 years at least, although they may darken a little.
That recipe is good for peaches and apricots (although Deane asked if I could add a bit more sugar to the apricots next time :-). I tried making the peach jam with brown sugar one year and it turned tasting like peach cobbler - really nice but I would not want that as the most common one in my pantry.
I make and can apple sauce pretty much the same way but with substantially less sugar.
Have ready a bowl of acidic water ( lemon cut and squeezed into large enough bowl of water to hold the cut apples).
24 cups of seeded and cubed apples (I also leave the skin on the apples)
2/3 cup of the acid water
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 - 1/2 cup of brown sugar (organic if you can)
Let the apples soak in the acidic water for 10 minutes or so. Put the apples the 2/3 cup of acid water, sugar and cinnamon into a large enough pot to hold and bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook for about an hour stirring regularly - it should reduce down by about 1/3 and be a nice consistency.
Hot pack and process for 10 minutes in boiling bath.
I found canning funnels and jar lifters totally necessary to avoid burns, loss of food, more mess than you would with them.
Just to repeat myself - because I use far less sugar than most recipe call for, the jams and sauces are more perishable once opened and refrigerated.
One of these days I'm going to get around to making our own katchup - my cookbooks include the one my mother always used "American Woman's Cookbook" and katchup's were more of a sauce than a condiment and included tomato, walnut and other spiced/fruit purees.
I don't care for ketchup really. But I saw this recipe for fig-tamarind "ketchup", and I thought I might try it. Plus it would be a way to use up figs.
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-masterclass-rec2-2011080...
However it doesn't say whether or not it can be canned. It might be best stored in the fridge.
This is one of my favorite jelly recipes. Jalapeno Pepper Jelly I like the idea of making jelly "the old fashioned way" without commercial pectin, and the recipe author claims you need less sugar because of it.