Hi All! Not sure if anyone is still out there connected to this thread, but thought I would try. =) My family loves the good old Strawberry Rhubarb freezer jam that uses jello, I love it, too. My problem is, I try to make enough of it to last us all year (they love it that much!), but I dont' want to use that much freezer space. I have tried a couple of recipes this year, water bath recipes, that have not set up. One I was afraid may not have had the right ingredients to be a jar jam, since it didn't set up, so after a few hours, I threw it in the fridge to use as syrup. Low and behold it set. =) So, I found another and tried it. It didn't set either. (What is the longest it should take to set up?) 12 c rhubarb 3 Tbs pectin (powdered) 3 c sugar lime juice cubes (2 or 3?) dash red food color Put sugar on diced rhubarb and let it sit overnight to suck water out. Cooked and reduced it for about 15 miutes with lime juice, and added pectin near end. My recipe is homemade so your mileage may vary. Rhubarb is high acid, though, so it should be safe enough. >>> I like the look of the above recipe very much (it is from further up in this thread), it has very little sugar, doesn't require much in the way of other fruit (I'm trying to be as frugal as possible) and is said to set up. My question is this. Can I use one of my recipes that has not set up, just add commercial pectin to it? (I do like the flavor, just want it to set.) If so, how do I figure out how much pectin to add? I'm new to the jam canning process, and don't have much for local resouces, so I appreciate all the help I can get. Thanks! Gabi

Sure, it's 100% vinegar brine so you can reduce the sugar as much as you want. Of course, at some point you're just going to end up with pickled peppers, so if you don't want sweet at all, why don't you just start with a pickled pepper recipe? You can even do just *some* sugar and end up with sort of a bread and butter pickled pepper. Here's just one - NCHFP has many vegetable pickle recipes, you can always sub hot peppers for sweet (in same amount/weight, obviously not count) if a bell pepper recipe looks interesting. The Joy of Pickling has a lot of pepper recipes too. Here is a link that might be useful: Pickled peppers

If the issue is pH, and from the above comments it is, you can test your jelly's pH and know for sure if it will store safely. (I have just started canning, myself, so I read this thread to see what the folks here thought of the reduced sugar's effect on preserving the food. I don't know anything about that, but I know how to test pH.) According to the WSU extension site, and others, your food needs to be below 4.6 pH in order to prevent botulism from growing. Having strayed from the recipe, your jelly may be too low in acid/too high of a pH. Maybe not. If you are willing to spend $10-$15 on some pH paper, (or you know someone in a science lab) you can find out your jelly's pH. You will have to find narrow-range pH paper, I have used pHydrion brand, in the range of 2.8-4.6. I've just found that for $8 on the site in the link below. When I tested my jelly, I first placed some pH paper in vinegar and/or lemon juice, to test that the paper was working properly. It indicated a PH lower than 2.8, which is correct. I tested each batch--luckily I did not have to open sealed jars; I had some extra from each batch that went into the fridge. I warmed my jelly to make it more spreadable, massaged it onto the paper, then wiped it off and compared the paper to the color chart. I also did a run where I added a couple of drops of distilled water to make the jelly more spreadable. It had the same results, but was a little easier to do. Since a roll of pH paper will last for many years, it seems an excellent investment--especially for beginning canners! Oh, I just found this excellent resource. I wish I had it a month ago! http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/foodsci/ext/pubs/formulatingdressings.PDF Here is a link that might be useful: chemassociates.com

There are baker's formulas that come into play, although not all recipes follow them and not everyone creating a recipe are aware of them. And as we all know, there are exceptions to every cooking/baking rule. When you start to alter the ratio of ingredients you often need to add something or adjust something. Pound cake really isn't supposed to be overly-sweet, but Americans seem to add too much sugar to nearly everything. The formula for pound cake: the weight of the sugar should be equal to the weight of the flour. This keeps the balance between the structure breaker and the structure maker. Pound cakes generally contain equal amounts of fat and sugar in addition to flour, large amounts of eggs, and flavoring. It gets the name from the original recipe, which called for 1-pound each of butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. Helpful hint: Grind the sugar with a food processor will make the pound cake lighter and smoother. Helpful hint: When you reduce the sugar you may find the panned pound cake will collapse. Baking it in a Bundt pan may "fix" the problem because it won't matter when you turn it out of the pan. Helpful hint: Substitute an egg yolk and potato starch for 10% of the flour for a moister, more tender cake. Helpful hint: Rose Levy Beranbaum adds a little milk and leavening. Since pound cake is leavened only by air and steam - generally - this is one of those exceptions to the rule. Helpful hint: Add 1 t. baking powder and beat the yolks and whites separately. -Grainlady