What happened to my jam?

[babysteps]

We picked 45 lbs of strawberries on Saturday morning, so I spent all Saturday afternoon making strawberry jam. (In 100 degree weather...boy am I dumb!)

 

Every single jar of jam I made seperated! The top half of the jam looks like regular jam, and the bottom half looks like jelly-- clear, and no seeds or fruit.

 

It's been a while since I made jam, and ??? what did I do? Or forget to do? I've been trying to remember if I was supposed to turn the jars a few times as they're cooling. Was that it?

 

I'm sure it'll get eaten just the same, I was just surprised! (Truthfully, since a few of my littles actually prefer jelly to jam, this might be a good thing...)

[Darlene]

Mine does the same thing, especially when the fruit isn't mashed well enough.

 

My daughter and I picked blackberries today and I made some blackberry jam. They seperated with the seeds and fruit on top, so I just shook the jar to get it to mix back together more evenly and it's setting awesome now.

[Violet]

Strawberry is known to do that. It is because the fruit is lighter than the jelly part, so it floats.

If your fruit is less ripe it will float more.

Cook jams, then let sit for about 5 min. Stir off and on to distribute the fruit before putting into the jars before processing.

 

[Shandy]

Mine does that when I mash the berries.

 

So I've taken to blending them to get the pieces smaller. It still comes out like jam, but maybe a tiny bit jellied.

[babysteps]

Originally Posted By: Darlene

Mine does the same thing, especially when the fruit isn't mashed well enough.

That's funny...my dh was fussing at me that I was mashing the berries too much. I shoulda kicked him out of the kitchen.

Oh well. Like I said, the littles seem to like it this way. Thanks everybody!