Many people are nervous about making jam at home. It conjures up images of huge cauldrons of boiling fruit, the use of large specialist thermometers and rows of sterilised jars. In fact home cooks can very easily make a smaller amount of jam (enough for one or two jars) in a decent saucepan - no special equipment or ingredients needed.
What is pectin and is it needed to make jam?
Jam making magic happens when you boil fresh fruit with the right amount of sugar and acid. Set jams (jams that hold their shape and are not runny) require pectin which is a type of starch. However, if you choose high pectin content fruits like plums, blackberries, gooseberries, crab apples and raspberries, you don’t need to add additional pectin. You can simply boil your fruit with regular caster sugar from your local shop. You can still make jam with lower pectin fruits like strawberries, the jam just won’t set (i.e. it will be runnier). Alternatively you can use jam sugar which has added pectin in it.
Don’t I need a jam thermometer?
To make a set jam you need to bring your mixture up to a ‘setting point’ of 105ºC. We have a top tip to help you find this setting point without a thermometer. Home-cook Stella from our Cookpad community shares her cold saucer technique tip with us - when you think your jam is about ready, simply put a spoonful on a cold saucer and run your finger through it. If the line stays as it is your jam is ready, if the line closes you need to continue cooking it.
Do I need to sterilise jars to make jam?
If you want to keep your jam for more than a week then you’ll need to store it in a sterilised jar - but the process is not as complicated as you might imagine. Save a couple of used jam jars and give them a really good soapy wash.
On the day you make your jam, you can put your jars through a hot dishwasher cycle or put them right side up in an oven at 110ºC for 30 minutes. Pop the lids in a pan of boiling water for 5 minutes. Don’t worry about paper tops or wax seals, these are not generally necessary with modern jam jars.
Easy no-equipment/no special ingredient jam recipes for beginners
Use a heavy based non-aluminium saucepan for your jam making, you can also use a solid cast iron casserole dish if you have one.
Raspberry Jam by Francesco Roviaro
Blackberry and apple jam recipe shared by Panda.s
California Farm Dried Rose Hip Jam by Hobby Horseman
Lemon Jam by Aunty Eiko's international cuisine experience
If you try making jam at home using one of these recipes from our community cooks, or any other recipe for homemade jam on Cookpad, please snap a photo and share it as a Cooksnap on the recipe to tell us how it turned out 📸