Jam Making At Home

[Gippy]

I like a bit of toast and jam for breakfast but find the imported jam a bit pricey and the local cheap jam a bit nasty. I used to make jam back home so I have been giving it a go here with 3 different fruits so far:

Mango - peel mangos, add to a bowl with sugar, leave for a couple of hours and then boil until you get a set. I used about 30% sugar to fruit as the wife doesn't like jam that is very sweet. This would probably need keeping in the fridge. This made a very nice jam, mine came out a deep green colour.

Banana - we have some banana trees on our rubber farm and I used the surplus for jam making. I made a sugar syrup first, heated that to boiling point and then added mashed bananas. This jam got a large shot of cheap whisky added right at the end for extra flavour. Bananas make an excellent jam, this one is really good stirred into home made yoghurt or as a topping for ice cream.

Mangosteen - I made this using the same method as mango jam. After about 1 hour of boiling the jam turns a dark red colour and most of the seeds are soft enough to eat.

I used regular white sugar for these and no pectin, all of them set very well so I'm guessing these fruits have plenty of natural pectin.

Does anybody else make jam at home? I'm looking for suggestions for some more fruit to try.

[ozsamurai]

I do, the last batch was a more conventional Mango, 1:1 recipe, went down well with the relies. However, production has come to a halt since I ran out of jars. I find it difficult to collect them and they are expensive to buy here.... I live a block from a fresh food market, so I just keep an eye on what is seasonal. I have never seen any jamsetta here, so you have to be pretty spot on with the water is all..lol.

Oz

[Gippy]

However, production has come to a halt since I ran out of jars. I find it difficult to collect them and they are expensive to buy here....

Oz

I get my jars from a local packaging shop, the kind that sells take away food containers and plastic bags. They sell 4 average sized jam jars for 30 baht, not too bad.

[Niloc]

I taught my wife to make kumquat marmalade and she soon became very good at it. The kumquat trees can be bought in most nurseries like the ones behind Lotus in CM.

Colin

[Gippy]

I taught my wife to make kumquat marmalade and she soon became very good at it. The kumquat trees can be bought in most nurseries like the ones behind Lotus in CM.

Colin

That sounds good, I have never tried to make marmalade. Can you share a recipe and some hints for this?

[ozsamurai]

Lycee Jam done; I based on the 1:1 sugar to fruit, however I added too much water which called for a long reduction. Cut the lycee in 8ths I think would be best as it doesn't reduce that well due to stronger cell structure I guess, soften but need to be smaller is all. I made a 1kg batch (still no jars found), I would say 1 cup of water to this could have been fine.

Oz