Q: As I recently made my annual batches of strawberry freezer jam, I wondered why the Sure Jell directions are so specific as to be almost stress-producing! The directions say to measure the "exact" amount of prepared fruit and the "exact" amount of sugar, then to boil and stir the pectin and sugar for "1 minute" before stirring the fruit "quickly" into the hot pectin mixture. Is it really that important to be so exact? Would a tablespoon too much pureed fruit or a teaspoon more or less sugar really make a difference?
-- G.W., Grand Rapids
A: Yes, even though jam- and jelly-making seems to be a simple endeavor, and generations before you have made preserves, there is a lot of science behind it.
There are many places where errors can be made in the process of making homemade jams and jellies. First, you have to use the best fruit (slightly underripe, but not green, and never overripe). Second, the type of pectin matters (you can't interchange directions between powdered and liquid pectin).
Third, you have to have enough acid to activate the pectin (there's acid in fruit, but usually not enough, so lemon juice is added). And fourth, you also have to have enough sugar to help the pectin form the jam or jelly (unless you get the low-sugar pectin which requires a lot less sugar to make the pectin set up).
So yes, there are many "rules." But the closer you follow the directions, the better your results should be. If you talk to people who have made jams and jellies for years, they probably can tell you about a time or two when they followed directions, yet their preserves didn't turn out and they ended up with syrup rather than jam. Things like that happen.
You may wish to have an updated food preservation guide such as "Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving" if you are interested in the science and the whys behind the recommendations.
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