astrid Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 Went strawberry picking yesterday, and today launched into jam-making. I"ve made jam a million times before--- strawberry, raspberry, apple butter, grape, stawberry-rhubarb, etc. I'm not a novice jam-maker by any means, but I can't figure out what went wrong. It was a cool, dry day here, just right for preserving, so I hulled the berries, added sugar (just as Fannie Farmer, the Joy of Cooking and the Barefoot Contessa all advise-- I consulted all three!) and boiled. It NEVER thickened! I was trying to avoid burning the gas to go to the store to buy pectin, so I was following the recipes that didnt' call for it. As I stirred and waited for it to thicken, the jam mixture slowly developed an odor and taste that wasn't "strawberry." It was actually kind of chemical-ly. It wasn't a burnt-sugar smell/taste, and the jam hadn't caught on the bottom of the pan at all. The only things in my scrupulously-clean pan were organically-grown strawberries and Domino's Pure Cane Sugar. I can't figure it out for the life of me! I actually threw the first batch out, and started again, but it never thickened either. I took it off the stove before the smell/taste was too badly tainted. I guess we'll use it on pancakes. I finally gave up and froze the rest of the strawberries before they went bad. Any idea what happened? Has anyone had this happen to them? I'm so disappointed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Virginia Dawn Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 The same thing happened to both myself and my neighbor this year. I assumed it was because the strawberries were so juicy. I didn't throw out the results, we had it on pancakes and in homemade strawberry ice cream. 1 cup cream, 2 cups milk, and 1 1/2 cups strawberry "syrup." Everyone loved it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJN Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 jam/jelly will not firm up, it'll be runny. I like to make strawberry preserves, but the past few years they didn't turn out, so I didn't even try this year. Our strawberries were not that big or tasty this year. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrid Posted June 21, 2008 Author Share Posted June 21, 2008 jam/jelly will not firm up, it'll be runny. I like to make strawberry preserves, but the past few years they didn't turn out, so I didn't even try this year. Our strawberries were not that big or tasty this year. HTH! Thank you! That must be it! We've had an unusual amout of rain, and since I didn't use Sure-Jell (like my MIL said I should :glare:) this must be what happened. Dh and I just ate some of the "failure" on vanilla ice cream and it was excellent! VirginiaDawn, thanks for the recipe! I'll be doing that tomorrow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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