Nancy, I'm usually just a lurker here since I don't do any canning, but I couldn't pass this post up. My mother & grandmother regularly made rose petal jam. It was a skill my grandmother brought with her from Greece. I loved it's perfumy taste. No matter where she lived, my mother always had one special rose in the garden with deep, dark petals. She'd gather them up and make the jam. She'd always add some rose water to it too. However, I've never tried making the jam myself. Just recently I ordered some from Amazon that was very similar to what my mom made. The reason I responded to your post is because I have my mother's typed recipe. Bear in mind, that's it's a very old recipe -- probably dating back to the 60s. Perhaps it would give you an idea of what to look for in a more current version. The end result was a delicious sweet jam for breakfast toast. The addition of rose water gave it a definite rose flavoring. I've eaten other commercial rose jams that were sickeningly sweet but with no pronounced rose flavor. I think that's what happens if the rose water is omitted. ROSE JAM Andonia Zografos Select fresh petals of bright red roses. Cut away any white spots. With a scissors cut petals in small strips. Wash and drain. Measure 2 cups roses, packed down fully in cup. Add 1 1/2 cups water and boil together for about 10 mins. Must have at least 1 1/2 cups roses. A little bit more or less won't make any difference. Add 3 cups sugar and 1/2 lemon juice to roses. Bring to boil. At once stir in 1/2 bottle of Certo. Bring to rolling boil and boil for 1 min. Remove from fire and put in 1 tsp. of rose water. Skim off foam and put in jars.

I've made several batches of Splenda jams and jellies. I don't notice a big difference between the Splenda ones and the regular sugar except, the color doesn't keep as much with the Splenda ones. AND I do use the low sugar pectin. I don't use the Ball, mainly because I buy bulk. I found mine in an Amish store, it's call Dutch Jell Lite, and there are recipes for it online. Ball has a pectin calculator which works very well for several fruits and after you tell it, what fruit, whether jam or jelly, and what pectin you want to, will give you recipes for full sugar, reduced sugar, low sugar and sugar free. Keep in mind that the less sugar, the more fruit you will need per jar. This is strictly from experience.

The low sugar pectin should be fine. The recipe already calls for less than regular pectin. You might give it a try and see if you like the flavor. Another option is Pomona Pectin. You can totally control the amount of sugar since it isn't required for the set. It won't make a clear jelly, but fig isn't anyway! Some say they can taste a "chalky" texture, but I don't have any problem with it and I like being able to make sugar free jam and jelly. Deanna

Amen! To add insult to injury, manufacturers dilute the flavor even more by using concentrated apple or grape juice in place of the main fruit. Unfortunately, US food labeling laws are very lax (compared to those of other countries), so this is perfectly legal. It's no wonder that these products have no flavor. The only problem with making your own is that it's so difficult to buy fruit that has any flavor (at least here in Massachusetts, which has lost most of it agriculture). Here is a link that might be useful: Label Watch - Commerical Jelly Ingredients