Lisa, if your fruit was hard like that and not juicy and really ripe it will be more firm jam or jelly. The greener the fruit the more natural pectin it has and will be a more firm product. This is why we teach people to use a mix of really ripe and some a bit more green in a batch of jam. This seems to be important with strawberry jam more so than some other types, in my experience. I just want to encourage you to not give up !!! You will be able to do this. It sounds as though the peaches were not ripe and juicy enough to get the liquid you needed. You do add the sugar all at once when using the powd. pectin. Normally it will dissolve and mix in with the liquid part in the pan, but since you didn't have the right amount of juice it just started burning. It does depend upon how ripe the fruit is how thick or thin the jam will be. Using fresh, tree picked fruit is ideal, but I do agree, that frozen may be better than what you used. Well, you are way to far away for me to help in person, or I would try to do more to help. Can you find a friend or someone who could help you through this in person ? If you try to cut down on sugar in a recipe with pectin it will not gel. You need to use the recipe for each type and brand of pectin. I prefer the powd. pectin. If you want a low or no sugar jam, learn to use Pomona's Universal pectin. It will gel water. Really it takes no sugar at all to gel. It is different to work with and may take a time or so to get comfortable with it. I am diabetic and use it for my jams for myself. My husband likes it when I make his with SureJel and use the sugar. So, I make both kinds here. You have learned to not double recipes, however, with Pomonas you can double and triple. You normally have to mail order the pectin from them. They sell in bulk, too. Not just boxes, but they have boxes, too. They even have a helpline you can call. The nicest folks there !! You can even create your own recipes with the stuff. They include recipes and instructions. Check out the link below to help you. You can click and see the recipes, too. http://www.pomonapectin.com/ You will not get crystal clear jelly with it, but you want jam, anyway. Doesn't matter to me if it is clear or not, even with jelly. I am not entering it in the fair, it is to eat. Each type of homemade jellied product have a different description. I am also sending you the link to all kinds of good info. Types of Jellied Products Jelly, jam, preserves, conserves and marmalades are fruit products that are jellied or thickened. Most are preserved by sugar. Their individual characteristics depend on the kind of fruit used and the way it is prepared, the proportions of different ingredients in the mixture and the method of cooking. Jellies are usually made by cooking fruit juice with sugar. (Some are made without cooking using special uncooked jelly recipes.) A good product is clear and firm enough to hold its shape when turned out of the container, but quivers when the container is moved. When cut, it should be tender yet retain the angle of the cut. Jelly should have a flavorful, fresh, fruity taste. Jams are thick, sweet spreads made by cooking crushed or chopped fruits with sugar. Jams tend to hold their shape but are generally less firm than jelly. (Recipes are also available for uncooked jams.) Preserves are small, whole fruit or uniform size pieces in a clear, slightly gelled syrup. The fruit should be tender and plump. Conserves are jam-like products that may be made with a combination of fruits. They also contain nuts, raisins or coconut. Marmalades are soft fruit jellies containing small pieces of fruit or peel evenly suspended in the transparent jelly. They often contain citrus fruit. Other fruit products that are preserved by sugar but not jellied include butters, honeys and syrups. Fruit butters are sweet spreads made by cooking fruit pulp with sugar to a thick consistency. Spices are often added. Honeys and syrups are made by cooking fruit juice or pulp with sugar to the consistency of honey or syrup. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This document was adapted from "So Easy to Preserve", 5th ed. 2006. Here is a link that might be useful: Univ. of Georgia on jams, jellies, etc.

I'll bet it really is a pressure canner. I still have the one my mother used before I was born -- that was 1945. The original book that came with it shows pressure canning recipes as well as cooking, and, of course, it's a perfect fit for four quart jars. I know that steam canners are not recommended, but I found a recipe in the Ball Book (new one) that said Steam Canner. I'm sure it was a misprint, or something from an old book that just wasn't caught, but it's fun to think they aren't infallible.

An update - popped open a jar of our tweaked chili sauce tonight (we're calling it our "North of the Border" chili sauce - did another batch tweaking the spices to make a "South of the Border" flavor). DH's comment - "Don't you dare change a thing - it's gooood". I think it just needed some time to meld all the flavors back together. Weird how that happens - in the future I certainly won't start making notes on what to change without tasting it after being on the shelf for a couple of months.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the recipe would look something like this with your "tweaks" (I have doubled the tomatoes, or rather left them the same while halving the other ingredients and leaving out the hot peppers, so this still makes something like 5 pints rather than 10 which would not fit in *my* BWB): Tweaked recipe (makes app. 5 pints?) Ball Zesty Salsa Recipe (from freshpreserving.com) 10 cups chopped cored peeled tomatoes (about 25 medium) 2.5 cups chopped seeded green bell peppers (about 2 large) 2.5 cups chopped onions (about 3 to 4 medium or 1 large) 5 oz cider vinegar (or lemon/lime juice)* 1.5 cloves garlic, finely chopped (app. 1.5 tsp) 1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro 1/2 Tbsp salt 1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce, optional *Note this is halving the acid, as previously noted this may be borderline, it would be safer to increase the acid to compensate for the "increased" volume of tomatoes. NCHFP acidification for tomatoes is 1 Tbsp per pint (2C), so that would be 2.5Tbsp (1.25 oz) of lemon (or lime) juice for the 5 "additional" cups, assuming the original recipe had *just* enough acid (vinegar) with no wiggle room. If using vinegar it would be 5 Tbsp (2.5oz) additional, for a total of 7.5oz (so say 1C). There is still the density issue as Dave said - though I think that "substituting" 5 cups of tomatoes in the (halved) recipe for 1 1/4C peppers would help, it really depends on what kind of tomatoes you're using. Now, compare above "recipe" with Annie's tested/approved recipe: Annie's Salsa Recipe 8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained 2-1/2 cups onion, chopped 1-1/2 cups green pepper, chopped 3 - 5 jalapenos, chopped (app 1/4C) 6 cloves garlic (may be reduced) 2 teaspoons cumin (may be reduced) 2 teaspoons ground black pepper (may be reduced) 1/8 cup canning salt (or to taste) 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (may be reduced) 1/3 cup sugar (optional) 1 cup 5% apple cider vinegar 2 cups (16 oz.) tomato sauce 2 cups (16 oz.) tomato paste Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Pour into hot pint jars, seal and process in a boiling water canning bath for 15 minutes. Makes about 6 pints Annie's does have about 3/4C less low-acid ingredients and 2C less tomato, plus adds tomato sauce to thin it out (though my notes say that it is optional - if you're using beefsteaks and not paste tomatoes it may be thin enough, you may want to add more paste and less/no sauce, just make sure it's soupy). See the thread linked below for complete notes (malna, I had made the same notes myself, took a lot of digging through old threads!). That thread also has link to NCHFP salsa acidification guidelines. All in all, I think you're better off just trying Annie's.