Comments on: STRAWBERRY LEMON MARMALADE WITH THE NEW BALL FRESHTECH!

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:54:00 +0000

Hi Suebrook,
With all jam and jellies you should stick with the fruit and/or juice amount, sugar amount and pectin amount or else you won’t get a good set. Also important is that dry pectin is added to the fruit and boiled together first, then the sugar is added; liquid pectin is added after the fruit and sugar have been boiled together first. Reversing the order means the jam won’t set. Customizing recipes can be easy: add citrus zest or rind, scraped vanilla bean, cinnamon, nutmeg or other spices. Lots of flavor and won’t interfere with the set or affect the safety of the canning. You can also play with fruit mixtures. Compare recipes and pair fruits with similar sugar amounts and instructions. Berries go together, as do peaches, pears, nectarines. Marmalade can be made with an array of citrus. Once you get the hang of it there’s all sorts of variations: caramelize the sugar first for a toasty taste, add some bananas — these are a little more complicated but very do-able. Using frozen fruit is fine, thaw it and proceed as usual. Re your great idea for sangria jelly — that’s a new one to me. Make it and send me a photo and the recipe and we can do a SpectacularlyD post. Seriously — it’d be cool. Sean

By: Suebrook

Suebrook — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:45:00 +0000

I purchased the jam/jelly maker and love it! Never did any canning before and ready to experiment. The only thing I experimented with was making the pepper jelly from the booklet and using half regular and half jalepeno to make it a bit more spicy. Came out great! Being a novice, I don’t want to ruin a batch, though. Is there a general rule about following the recipes in the FreshTECH booklet, but changing things up a bit? Like should the liquid amount be the same as a similar recipe. If using frozen berries, do you measure it the same as if it they were cut up fresh? I have seen wine jelly recipes — would I follow the recipe for grape jelly and just use red or white wine instead of grape juice? Could I add a little bit of cut-up fruit into that? Like the amount called for in the pepper jelly? Kind of like a sangria jelly.

By: Sean

Sean — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 10:49:00 +0000

I haven’t tried marmalades in the FreshTECH yet, they don’t use pectin. I have a great recipe on the site, Persian Pink Grapefruit Marmalade, it is one of the best ever. http://spectacularlydelicious.com/2009/12/10/persian-grapefruit-marmalade/

By: Jen Morgan

Jen Morgan — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:54:00 +0000

I got mine this week. It’s perfect for a jam/jelly virgin like me. I made my first batch of strawberry balsamic vinegar & black pepper jam tonight. I’ve got more strawberrys and lemons on hand so this recipe is perfect for my next batch. Any ideas on what to do with some pink grapefruits? Should I just put them through the juicer and make a jelly? Thanks.