Making Seasonal Jams and Preserves from Garden Fruit

A larder that remembers the summer

Anyone who keeps a smallholding soon learns that the garden does not deal in moderation. One week the gooseberries hang in green clusters and the next you are eyeing the neighbours' hedges for somewhere to hide the surplus. Jam, jelly and chutney are the answer — a way of turning a glut into something that sits quietly on a shelf and tastes of August in the middle of February.

The good news is that preserving needs very little kit and no special talent. A large heavy-based pan, a long wooden spoon, a jam funnel, a few dozen jars and a thermometer will see you through most of the year. What it does need is discipline about timing, sterilising and testing for a set.

Pick and prepare with a purpose

The fruit you choose decides the sort of preserve you make. Soft, low-pectin fruits — strawberries, raspberries, cherries, pears and elderberries — make beautiful jam but need help to set. High-pectin fruits — blackcurrants, gooseberries, damsons, plums, apples and redcurrants — set readily and often benefit from being mixed with something softer.

• Pick in dry weather. Wet fruit dilutes the mix and encourages mould.
• Choose slightly underripe fruit for jam. Pectin levels fall as fruit ripens, so a handful of firm berries stirred through a soft-fruit batch helps more than any shop-bought powder.
• Keep it clean. Rinse, hull, stone and remove any bruised or mouldy fruit. A single bad berry can taint the whole pan.
• Weigh after preparation, not before, so your sugar ratio is accurate.

A rough rule is 450g of sugar to every 500g of prepared fruit for most soft fruit jams, though sharp fruits such as blackcurrant and damson take a little more. Warm the sugar in a low oven first; it dissolves faster and you lose less colour from the fruit.

Finding the setting point

Bring the fruit and sugar to a rolling boil, then stir constantly — jam catches and burns in the time it takes to answer the door. Start testing after eight to ten minutes. The classic method is the saucer test: put a small plate in the freezer before you begin, drop a teaspoon of jam onto it, leave it a minute and push with your finger. If the surface wrinkles, you have a set. The flake test works too: lift a spoonful and let it drip; when two drops merge and fall as a sheet rather than a stream, stop.

A sugar thermometer takes the guesswork out of it. Setting point for jam is 104–105°C; jellies are usually ready a degree or two higher. If your jam refuses to set, add the juice of a lemon, a tablespoon of lemon pectin or a chopped cooking apple, and boil again. Over-boiled jam turns dark and sticky, so err on the side of undercooking — a soft-set jam is far nicer than a rubbery one.

Sterilising jars, lids and spoons

Skipping this step is the single most common reason home preserves spoil. Wash jars in hot soapy water, rinse, then stand them upside down in an oven at 150°C for fifteen minutes. A hot dishwasher cycle works equally well, provided you fill the jars while they are still hot. Boil metal lids for ten minutes, or scald them in just-boiled water. Never use a chipped or scratched jar, and never reuse a lid that has already been sealed once.

Pour the jam into hot jars through a funnel, filling to within a few millimetres of the rim, and wipe the threads clean before sealing. For chutney, which keeps longer and matures in the jar, cut a wax disc to sit directly on the surface, then screw the lid down. Chutney should be left for three months before eating; jam can be enjoyed the same afternoon.

Jellies, chutneys and curds

Jellies begin with the pulp of cooked fruit strained through a scalded jelly bag, or through muslin suspended over a bowl. Let it drip overnight and resist squeezing — squeezing makes the jelly cloudy. Measure the juice, add 450g of sugar per 600ml, and boil to the same set.

Chutneys take the harder, sharper and less pretty fruit: green tomatoes, windfall apples, marrow and onions. Simmer them with vinegar, sugar, salt and spices until the mixture is thick enough for a channel drawn through it with a spoon to stay put. Courgette and green tomato chutney is the great catch-all of a late-summer garden.

Lemon curd is a different creature altogether: only three or four days in the fridge once opened, because it contains eggs and butter. Make it in small batches, cook it gently over a bain-marie until it coats the back of a spoon, and keep a close eye on it.

Storage, and the odd failure

Keep jars in a cool, dark, dry cupboard — a garage shelf in high summer is too warm. Properly sterilised jam will hold its quality for a year; chutney goes on improving for two or three. Once a jar is opened, move it to the fridge.

Mould on the surface means the jar was contaminated or damp; throw the whole jar away rather than scraping it off. Fermentation — a fizzing, boozy smell — usually means too little sugar or too warm a storage place. Runny jam is not a disaster: stir it into yoghurt, use it as a sauce for pork or game, or call it fruit syrup. And if a batch does set like glue, warm it gently with a little water and reboil it briefly. Either way, there will be another glut along next week.