ccaggiano, the amount of sugar used in fruit jams is not a safety issue. Traditional pectin needs a certain ratio of pectin/sugar/fruit to jell. An all fruit spread with no sugar at all is still safe to can, the issue is in whether or not it will jell. It has been noted here that "Pomona will jell water", so the sugar ratio isn't an issue. Cut it as low as you like until you are happy with the taste, it'll still be safe. I will note, however, that low sugar/no sugar spreads do not store as well or as long after opening and I've found that no-sugar spreads lose color. This picture shows this year's strawberry jam. My long cooked and low sugar jam is on the right, the "no sugar" spread with Equal is on the left. Annie

There are times, such as I've had with preparing an apple jam, that the recipe called for cooking the fruit with the sugar for a while. The sugar actually helps maintain the quality of the product. With Pomona pecting, that is far sooner than I want to add it. So what I have done is reserve part of the sugar, maybe a cup or so, to thoroughly mix the pectin into. Then, when things get cooked to the point where it is essentially ready, I stir in that last cup of sugar with the pectin, bring it to a boil, remove heat and add calcium water, then can. Works great.

Regarding grape jelly, you don't need pectin with that because when you cook grapes or grape juice down it jells on its own. When I make jams and jellies and fruit sauces the amount of time I cook things affects how much product I get. I just try to keep an infinite amount of jars and lids on hand. :-) I scored about 150 pint jars this summer, from my recycling center. It is a lot of work to wash them, am only about half-way through, but I like to be prepared! Marcia

I also made the apple pie jam this year with the No Sugar Needed pectin. I reduced the brown sugar by half (I used half a cup) as well as the white (I used 2 cups) so a total of 2 and a half cups of sugar. Everything else stayed the same. It turned out very good. The only difference I noticed really was that the jam was not as "clear" which I assumed was because of the reduced sugar and I got 5 and a half 8 oz. jars out of a batch. Val