To be honest, I have never seen a jam/jelly/marmalade recipe in any Australian or British cook book that suggested processing the finished product. I have been successfully making jams etc for over 30 years, never processed, never had mold or spoilage.

Thanks for the input, Colleen. If you have a couple of recipes you'd like to share, I'd be glad for them!

Off the top of my head, marmalade is dead easy. I'll look our some other recipes in the morning :-)

First:

We don't use canning jars here (unless canning fruit or vegetables), we use new or recycled normal jars. But you could use canning jars if you wanted, you'd just have to leave the screw thingy on as there isn't a vacuum seal that I know of.

The night before:

Weigh your citrus fruit. Slice it thinly and put it in a really large pot with double the weight of the fruit in water. So, if you have 2lbs of fruit, add 4lbs of water. If there are any seeds, put them into a small square of muslin and tie it up with some kitchen string. Leave a tail on the string long enough to tie to the pot handle so you don't have to go looking for it when it's time to take it out :-)

Note: This will boil up very high as you cook so I would recommend 2lb of fruit as an upper limit. Use a large pot with a heavy bottom.

Put a saucer into the freezer.

The next day:

Put the fruit on to cook until it is soft. At the same time, wash jars and lids thoroughly, rinse but don't dry. Put wet jars onto a baking tray and put in a 250F oven. Put lids into a lidded saucepan, cover with water and boil at least ten minutes, then turn off but leave the lids in the hot water with the pan lid on. I always prepare way more jars than I might use, because if you have too many it's no problem, if you don't have enough, it is a problem.

When the fruit is soft, remove the seed bag (squeeze any juice from it into the pot as you do) and add the double the weight of the fruit in sugar, so for the example above add 4lbs of sugar. Stir to dissolve.

Boil hard until setting point is reached. It will foam up a lot. If it gets too high, fan it a little on top and the foam will subside a bit. Stir fairly frequently to ensure it doesn't catch on the bottom. (I have a spoon with a straight across end instead of a pointy tip which is good for this sort of thing. One of those bamboo spatulas is also good.) When the bead of the foam gets really tiny, like champagne foam, the marmalade should be at setting point or close to it. Get your saucer out of the freezer and drizzle a spoonful of marmalade into it. Wait a minute for it to cool, then push the edge gently with your fingertip. If you get little wrinkles across the top of the jam, it will set.

Turn off the heat and turn off the oven and get the jars out to cool a little. Wait about ten minutes for the marmalade to cool a little so the peel doesn't all end up floating to the top. If you have a jam funnel this will make filling the jars a lot less messy. (You can improvise one by cutting the top off a clean plastic bottle- the kind with a handle near the top works best.) Fill the jars to about 1/2" from the top. Working quickly, remove the lids from the hot water with clean tongs, shake off the water and screw tightly down on the jars.

I sit the hot, filled jars onto a wooden cutting board to cool down overnight. Label. Enjoy!

It's "not recommended" by "the experts"....but I've got Colleen beat as I have been making unprocessed jams and jellys for easily 50 years.
Basic recipe for things like apple, crab apple and grape...... cook the fruit with just a sprinkle of water to keep it from burning...until soft and the juices run freely.
Strain over night by hanging the pulp in a cloth bag over a bowl. Measure the juice, add an equal portion of sugar, and blil until it reached gel point...tested my dripping it off the side of a metal spoon.
While still very hot, pour into jars that you have boiled for 10 minutes and kept in the hot water, and immediately top with a thin layer of melted parrafin.....add a little more wax after it's cooled a bit....and also after you pour the first parrafin, you can add a flat lid ( which has been in boiling water) and a ring....and about 95% will PING!

For other fruits, follow the directions on the Certo box.
And look up on line the original Fanny Farmer Cookbook....lots of basic recipes for jams and jellys.

Do you think would anyone buy your jams, jellies, etc if they knew they weren't processed in a HWB?

Thanks, everyone, for the helpful input and suggestions and "how to's"--looks like I may want to do a trial batch first. I know DH will gladly volunteer to taste whatever I make!

sooz, it isn't the initial tasting that's a worry, it's mold growth over time that is eliminated by a hwb and seal.

I have no idea why the new recommendations, but my mother made homemade jams and jellies for 60 years with nothing but paraffin on top. We had hot bread at every meal so we ate this a LOT and no one ever got sick or died. No mold or spoilage. I think the key is "hot sterile jars".

If jams mold...you can see the mold Its very obvious

Do you eat moldy fruit?
And yes hot sterile jars and cover with something as soon as you can.

if you buy strwberries at a roadside stand do you ask if they have been washed in clorox? do you eat any that are moldy?

in all my many years of making jams and jellies I only had one jar mold....and that was seveal years old found on the back of a shelf in the basement.

I suspect the reason for the warning is because some people make low sugar jams or "fresh" jams that are not cooked......

I know people who toss any food aas soon as it reaches the best by date...be smart people if it was fine to eat last night, it didnt suddenly rot by 8 AM the next morning.

Sorry, but I just wouldn't be comfortable eating or giving homemade jam (or any food) preserved by someone with no canning experience when a 10 min hot water bath would allay any concerns. And I agree that people used to do it differently (I used to, too). At some point the experts who study food safety changed their minds and I'll take my chances with their recommendations. ymmv.

After reading everything above, seems to me a HWB would be easily done! This idea might have been taken out of my hands, as another member of my church club just mentioned making jams, jellies, etc, and she has experience in doing this! I'll gladly step back, but offer help so if she needs, help I can watch and learn. Thanks everyone!

Smiles,

Sooz

I make a ton of jams/jellies too... I'd BWB if I were selling it. The thing about good recipes is you need the right fruit. This time of year I'd make things like marmalades, apple butter, fig jam, hot pepper jelly, etc. Maybe you're in a warmer climate and have some fruit available? What's good where you are?

How about making cute 4 oz jars and use a Dutch oven as your BWB? :)

Your risk is losing a seal, and HWB helps get a good seal. You most likely won't get botulism, you'll get moldy jam, especially if you use low sugar or old-fashioned long boil jams that have less sugar than pectin jams. I grew up scraping the mold off the jam but there were studies done that the mold grows roots that makes fruits less acidic, which is what botulism and other bad buggies like. There has been a report of botulism in applesauce that got moldy and raised the pH that much.

I've taught canning classes for years and my beef is that the USDA information often doesn't delineate between safety issue and quality issues. I drove the University Extension person crazy because I wouldn't tell people using paraffin or turning their jars upside down would kill them. Personally I've never had good luck with paraffin....it was always weepy and hard to get the wax off, even with a cute little string embedded in it. I had a neighbor who used old pickle and relish jars over and over and she always got a seal. Me...not so much. So I WB because I work to hard to grow and harvest my strawberries and the last thing I want is to give someone a jar of preserves and have the seal pop before they open it. I use a stew pot with a pressure cooker rack in the bottom. And the nice thing about WB is if it's processed 10 minutes there's no need to sterilize the jars, which always took me longer than the processing time.

Are there any laws in your state that say preserved foods that are sold must be processed in an inspected facility? We have a business incubator that can be rented...lots of locals use their kitchen to process the preserved foods they sell commercially. Not sure about fundraisers though...

I have made jams and jellies of (as far as I can recall, probably forgotten one or two over the years) all the citrus fruits, strawberries, cherries, crabapples, apples, cherries, loquats, peaches, apricots, figs, plums, mulberries, quinces, lillipillis and melons. I rarely use added pectin. I have _never_ had a jar go moldy. I still have some jams that are years old and there is no mold.

I suspect the mold issue is more due to people not working quickly to get the hot jam into the jars and the lids on while the jam is still boiling hot.

I use a boiling water bath for the same reasons KatieC does, because I just can't get paraffin right. I always have a "leak", I pretty much ruin a pan, I actually caught a pan of paraffin on fire once. It's messy, hot, I burn myself, I hate popping all those bubbles with a pin and I always have a LOT of bubbles. And then I get those little shards of wax in my jam, and that's if I'm lucky enough to get a good seal and not have the jam mold under the wax. (sigh) Nope, I slap a lid and ring on the jar, stick it in boiling water for 10 minutes and I'm done. Plus, if you process for 10 minutes, you don't have to sterilize the jars, just be sure they are clean and hot.

Grandma often made batch of jam and just kept them in the refrigerator, they'd last there until they were eaten, several weeks at least for some large batches. If I were going to provide it to the public, though, I'd make sure they knew that it wasn't sealed, so they could refrigerate it for longer term storage.

It's just too fast and easy to do a BWB, and then it lasts on the shelf for years. I had a jar when I moved that was dated 1998. Yeah, I tasted it. It was sweet, LOL. The orioles liked it, it was dark and tasted like no fruit known to humans in Michigan, but it wasn't moldy or weepy or spoiled. Definitely a quality issue!

Annie

I need to express my concerns too. I agree with Olychick. Under no circumstances would I prepare a food to sell at a fundraiser without following all the current guidelines. Truthfully, what I do for my own family these days is no different. We have a baby and toddler in our midst (so happy, we're enjoying them so much!) and there is my now frail 91 year old mother. I'm more careful with food than I ever dreamed of being 30 years ago. I wouldn't buy a product I knew had been prepared otherwise.

Sooz, do you know that if you process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes you can skip the sterilizing and use jars only clean from your sink or dishwasher? That alone had me processing them BWB when the recommendation came out. I learned with paraffin. Ancient history ;0)

Thanks for the additional info about this! ..and Annie and Morz8, I did not realize that--very helpful!

Morz, as I mentioned in the post right above yours, that's one of the things that sold me too, no boiling of the jars before filling. I just put mine in the dishwasher.

Annie

Hi Annie....I didn't see you'd mentioned it too. Love the freedom of just running them through the dishwasher, one less handling of hot jars. And no messy melting of wax...

I have 2 giant pots...one lovely with a clad bottom, the other a crappy thin stainless pot....but it holds 15 half pint jars.
I put the jars in, fill it with water and turn on the fire.
Then I begin making my jam, either preparing the fruit or cookign the already prepared fruit. While the jam is cooking I fill a small pot with water and put in the "flats" and get out my dedicated parrafin pan, which is a 1930's cute little wearever aluminum sauce pan. I add another block of parrafin and turn the fire on low...to melt the wax.....when the wax is melted I turn it off...
Then I get out some towels and lay them on the counter....and watch the jam carefully. When it has reached gel, I turn it off and get the jars out of the boiling water and set them on the towels and pour the hot jam into them....being careful not to spill on the edges.
When all are filled, I take a damp paper towel and wipe up any spilled jam on the edges of the glass....and pour a layer of parrafin on each, and then take the flats out of their hot water and put them on the jars and add the rings!
Poof...bam-zam....done! Wash the pots and listen for the tink....no messing around boiling jars 4 at a time in the same pot I put the 15 in to begin with.....and as I have said....never mold!

Oh, Linda, you make it sound so easy! (grin)

Yeah, she does, but it has never, ever, ever worked that way for me, LOL. She left out the part where I have to extinguish the fire. (grin)

Morz, in agreeing with you, that's one of the reason I like to waterbath the jam, I can boil the jars empty or I can boil them full, it just seems so much more efficient to fill them first!

Annie

Heating the jars on a tray in the oven for an hour or so at 250F will also sterilise them.

I had a fire......once! I'm a fast learner!

A boiling water bath is really easy and I'm not just saying that. I am a huge kitchen klutz and I can do it. It's basically just one additional step to whatever else you would be doing anyway to make the stuff to sell, and huge dividends for shelf life, which I imagine will increase your sales. I wouldn't buy jam not sealed and wax is messy. Make your jam, put it in some jam jars, put the lid on and boil for a bit. What's the big deal? The biggest danger is splashing yourself with boiling water but you can use a small cup to slowly drain the water.

But if you have 15 or 16 jars it's one little step.....times 4!

Nope, you make a rack from an old cake rack or some rings and twist ties, and stack 'em. My soup pot will take two layers, the deep stock pot will hold three. I actually use the round insert from the bottom of the pressure cooker as a rack.

Annie

8 jars for ten minutes, then 8 more. Done and no waxed up pan to deal with. I make candles so I know wax.

A question... when doing the water bath, do the jars have to have rubber rings or can you just use screw top jars? By that I mean old store bought jelly or pickles jars.

I watched my mother and grandmother deal with the jars in the water in the oven and the paraffin -- and the seeping and cracked wax, the wax bits in the jam -- and so much of their efforts thrown out. I started making jam by happening to buy a flat of strawberries and deciding to give it a go. What I discovered was that the HWB was SO much easier and SO much more reliable. Learn to wipe the rims very clean and eliminate And a jar lifter is about the only special equipment you need. We make a lot of small batch jams now -- maybe 4 to 6 jars in a batch. I've found that out pasta pot make a great small canner -- you can use the mesh insert to hold the jars above the bottom of the pot and then to lift them all at once if you chose. Works well for half pints and pints.

I won't risk my time and ingredients by not using a HWB. I wouldn't plan on giving or selling to anyone without following the current guidelines.

Jars from store bought goods are much more prone to breaking. There are all kinds of ways you can monkey around with canning but why bother when the basics are so easy and fool proof? You can use all kinds of containers but if you are going to sell your product you want a uniform and safe end result so I would stick with standard canning jars and standard procedures. Like I said, there is nothing difficult about them.

<<Jars from store bought goods are much more prone to breaking.>> I hear people say that but never had it happen unless I dropped the jar on a hard floor. But maybe boiling them is different.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but looking from the outside I find it somewhat perplexing that the US has such strict guidelines for jam preparation, and such relatively lax rules for gun ownership.

Yes, like I said, you can cut corners all kinds of ways, and re-using salvaged jars from other things, and doing a paraffin seal, all are fine if you want to fiddle with those things, but I wouldn't recommend doing it if I was trying to make a product for sale.

Heck back in the day folks put up preserves in crocks sealed with tallow, but I doubt such products would sell today at a church sale.

I hear ya Colleen! No messed up pan...that pan only has parafin in it...
I have bought antique glassware and made jelly and put it in and given as a gift....got to watch what glassware you use as they don't all take to boiling water....and it would be a pity to break a $20 glass before you even gave it away.

Colleen, I agree, for what that's worth. I live in a small college town, but my chances of being a victim of violent gun related crime are 1 in 346, according to state statistics. It would be 1 in 47 if I lived in Detroit. My chances of getting sick from eating home canned jam are far lower than that, as bacteria and mold can live in the acidic environment of home canned jams, but only a few are pathogens.

The government writes their "guidelines" based on the premise that the dumbest person in the dirtiest kitchenstill won't die if they follow the instructions. They build in room to mess up and still be OK. They fail to differentiate between quality issues and safety issues, as KatieC also mentioned.

So, would I eat LindaC's jam sealed with paraffin? Without hesitation, and I have, her crabapple jelly was lovely and delicious, she sent me some. I just cannot get the "hang" of paraffin and never have been particularly successful, so I use rings and lids on the jam and use the old jelly jars that had metal covers without threads for things like a salt container by the stove. Ashley uses them as containers for her homemade candles and sugar scrubs, along with any "cool shaped" jars, so they aren't discarded, but I don't use them for canning.

Additionally, if you are providing those items to the public, many are very suspicious about home made products. Remember all those threads here about whether something is safe to eat? I know people who throw out milk because it's reached the expiration date, without even stopping to see if it's sour or can still be used. Those people are not going to buy/want/consume a product that's out of their comfort zone, and people will sue you at the drop of a hat if they even think there's an inkling that you have an "unsafe" product.

Aa for reusing jars, first the guidelines said not to use them, they were not approved. Then the guidelines said go ahead and use them, but expect more breakage and seal failures. Now they are "not suggested" or something similar. Whatever. I use those old wide mouth Miracle Whip jars to can tomatoes, I reuse spaghetti sauce jars if lids fit, some of the old marshmallow cream jars have a really nice "squatty" shape and wide mouth lids fit perfectly, I use those for salsa. So, if a lid fits, I use it, and I don't get any more breakage than I do with commercial mason jars. I do not put them in the pressure canner because then I do seem to get some additional breakage, but boiling water doesn't hurt them and some of those Miracle Whip jars that I put tomatoes in are 25 years old or more. (shrug) They still work.

Annie