The singers want to impress you with their range. But I have no idea about the price of pectin. :)

Kate, I agree about the screeching singers, it just makes me cringe. And then I want to hunt them down and tell them to JUST. STOP. IT.

The pectin, well, I think it's because they can. Home canning is becoming more popular again, but people are in a hurry, so they want the commercial pectins like Sure Jell. I make long cooked jams and jellies, but they must be cooked to approximately 220F and it takes time, far more time than the batch containing Sure Jell. Some people think the jam tastes "fresher" if it's cooked for 5 minutes instead of 45 minutes, some just want to "make a quick batch of jam". Some don't want to cook it at all, they put it in the freezer.

Like other convenience foods like frozen pizza and bagged salad, commercial pectins save time and effort. While I'm simmering a pan full of berries for an hour or making Readinglady's Pear Preserves which take three DAYS, others are slapping together a batch of jam with Sure Jell and theirs will be in and out of the canner, or in the freezer with the utensils washed before mine is ready to be tested. So, as demand grows, so does price.

Annie

... and how about the price of the tiny jam jars? you can get quart jars for the same price ... and there is never an off season, just a more expensive season ...

vent below ... it's good to get it out of the way before the holidays ....

and what about this weather?

^_^

If you use some unripe fruit in the mix you don't need pectin, at least for berry jams. I never use it in mine. But I'm not sure about other types of fruit. It seems like I read or heard that either pears or apples have a lot of natural pectin in them, you might research that.

apples have lots of natural pectin, as do the peels and seeds of various citrus fruits. That's why I squeeze a lemon into those Pear Preserves, then wrap the peel and pits in cheesecloth and toss it into the pan. The addition of these items will help your jam "jell", but you still have to cook it to 220F.

Annie

Similar to Annie, I wrap apple peels in cheesecloth and toss it into the pan while cooking some jams with low pectin fruit. The only time I use pectin is when making rose petal jelly which has no natural pectin.

MJ

Those tiny jars are now also used for desserts. My son makes them by the carload when he has a party for a few hundred of his closest friends, lol. He makes all kinds of things in them, cheesecakes, strawberry shortcakes, ect.

Ah. I forgot about the expensive jars.

I have been making Christmas Jam every year for ---- 61 years. It is a freezer jam that is not cooked, is a beautiful red, and, is in high demand.

I was 12 when I found the recipe in one of those 'women's magazines' from that era. It was the first jam I had ever made and put Welsh's Grape Jelly to shame. Now there's no turning back! I make jam from any abundance of fruit I have. The Meyers are ripe and I'm going to try making your Orange Jam, Annie, but with the Meyers.

Thanks to all who have joined this thread.

Kate, share it here

Yum, Kate, that sounds delicious. Out of all the jams I make, from Habanero Gold to Pear Preserves to Tomato Marmalade, my oldest daughter still loves just plain strawberry freezer jam best. And that requires pectin, because it doesn't get cooked.

I'll be interested to know how that Meyer "orange" jam turns out.

Annie

Mmmm I’m going to have to put it on my calendar to go strawberry picking this year. My mom used to make freezer jam every year but it’s been decades now...

I went to the local yesterday to get more of the necessary to make more Jam, and they aren't carrying it anymore. AHHHHHHHHHGH !!!!! :-(( Now what am going to do????????????

After a Tall hot chocolate from Starbucks - with a large dose of Baileys added - I calmed down enough to think.

An experiment is in order to recreate the proper raspberry mixture... just to start out. (Putting on my Wonder Woman shirt) I am up to this task!

Of course you are, Kate, I have absolute faith in you. So you use the pectin made for freezer jam? Here it's "out of season", but it seems like they should have it year round in California.

If they have "regular" dry pectin, I have seen freezer recipes that use that, and also some that use jello in a complimentary flavor. I've never tried it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work as a jelling agent.

Annie

Jell-o jelly tastes like Jell-o....artificial! Cranberries have lots of pectin and are in season now. When you are accustomed to pectin added preserves, those which are long cooked taste sort of "cooked". I use liquid or dry pectin for all preserves but crab apple and citrus......and of course cranberry.

Is this what you are looking for? You may need to order it.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ball-Real-Fruit-Instant-Pectin-4-7-OZ/23597634

No, pectin I can find, it's the raspberry mixture that has left California shelves. Who knows what will be next.

Have you looked for the raspberries in the frozen food? I was making the muffin recipe that needed fresh cranberries and at that time they were nowhere to be found. Dole had frozen cranberries that worked fine.

So it's a raspberry mixture along with other berries, like the frozen mixed berries I find here? Or is it just raspberries? If it's a mixture, I'd probably just buy bags of the types of fruit in the mixture and mix them up, although quantities of each may be problematic.

Annie

Ya know, you really are going to have to post the entire recipe! We really need it.

Sorry, this is the only recipe I never share.

The recipe uses only a particular kind of frozen red raspberries.

And you don't have any other places where you could find these "special" raspberries, like a different store? Here we have Meijer, Walmart and Aldi, and I've spent a week looking for raspberry Dannon yogurt for Mother, not the kind with the fruit on the bottom. It's not to be had anywhere in this county. (sigh) She eats other brands but really likes the Dannon best. I hope you have better luck with your berries.

You know, if you're going to make it every year you're going to have to find a source or an acceptable alternative. I don't suppose you want to grow your own.....

Annie

I DO grow my own. There aren't enough for this project; AND... I eat them all up!

The only known company that still makes the required raspberries no longer sells in CA... or rather their local distributor dropped them.

OK, so it seems that if you are going to make your special jam, you're going to have to find a substitute. It appears that your only solution will be to find what makes that particular brand of raspberries different than any other brand of raspberries, and then alter your recipe to include whatever that magical ingredient or mixture is.

Or get a motel and a hot plate in another state that has the "magic mixture" and surreptitiously make jam in your motel there......nah, that won't work. Or maybe it will, since it's frozen rather than water bath canned. (grin) It could get to be darned expensive, though!

I'll be interested to see how you work around this. It annoys me to no end when a favorite ingredient becomes unavailable, but I've always managed to adapt. I'm sure you will too.

I still can't help you on the screeching singers, though...

Annie

Add some Chambord and no one will be the wiser . . .

Reporting in: I made The Jam today using my own mixture of Raspberries. So far so good - looks right, tastes right, and jelled properly. The real test will come when the family gathers at Christmas for a tasting. My daughter down south is also hoping this works so she can make The Jam for her friends. (Yes, I have shared the recipe with the family.)

Annie: I tried weighing everything - instead of measuring, and that worked just fine. I added those weights to my recipe for future jam-making. I can understand that it is much more accurate.

I don't have any "secret" recipes. If have have found anything I like I am always happy to shout out from the mountain tops and will post anywhere for anyone!

Elizabeth Andress told me to always weigh if I'm doubling a recipe, measuring by volume is OK when you're following the original recipe usually, but if you want to scale up, measuring is more accurate. With jam, it's more science than anything, so even a tiny bit can make that difference. The size of the pan, the size of the containers, a small amount of over/under cooking can all affect the end product and make it "different".

I'm glad you got it right, though, have a wonderful holiday with your family.

Sherry, I don't have any secret recipes either. The only one that everyone loves and that people have actually told me I could make money on, is my salsa, and that's already all over the internet, so it's too late, LOL. I guess I won't be rich on that....

Annie

Annie, I can't remember what I was searching for the other day, it had to be something Mexican or Tex-Mex, but your salsa recipe was front and center! I was going, wait, I know this! I went back to GW and confirmed.

Yes, Sherry, it's all over the place. That's fine with me, except when people make changes that could render the recipe unsafe to can and then claim that it's been "tested and safe for canning". You can't reduce the vinegar, add more peppers, leave out the tomatoes, make it thicker with cornstarch/flour/clear jel, etc. Then it's not as written, and not tested and safe. Because salsa is something that you eat right out of the jar, you don't heat before eating, and it contains low acid ingredients, it's something you have to be very careful with.

Google "Annie's Salsa", though, and you'll get hits from blogs to recipe sites to Mother Earth News. So I guess I'm kind of famous, except that none of those people even know who I am, LOL.

I don't want my recipes to go the way of my stepdad's BBQ sauce. It was Top Secret and he didn't tell anyone. When he got sick, he told my brother, but swore him to secrecy. Now my brother has lost the recipe and can't remember anything except that it had grape jelly in it. Family members at cookouts sigh and remember Hal's BBQ sauce, but it's gone forever. My brother asked if I thought I could recreate it, but I don't remember ever tasting the stuff.

Annie

I can’t understand why someone uses a recipe, but then proceeds to change everything in it. Then, says they didn’t like it???

ETA: You are right, pages of your salsa! What a legacy! Congratulations!