# strawberry jam too thin



## MD Steader (Mar 11, 2010)

After years I'm finally starting into this. Sunday I made the Ball recipie for Jam. It came out loose, not runny just not tight. It tastes better than anything Ive tried before so we are not complaining. Just wondering what I could do better. This was 2qts strawberries, 7 cups sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice and powered pectin. Dont have it in front of me right now. Followed the processing instructions. Any ideas on how to tighten it up next time.


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## PixieLou (May 1, 2010)

When using commercial pectin, it can take up to 2 weeks for the jam to set. 

Also, some people recommend boiling rapidly for an additional minute or 2 after you add the sugar to help with the set.


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## VegRN (Jun 23, 2010)

I am making this recipe tomorrow! I will use PixieLou's tip and report back with the results.


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## MD Steader (Mar 11, 2010)

ok so now whats throwing me as Im reading more is this

The NCHFP website has this recipie

5Â½ cups crushed strawberries (about 3 quart boxes strawberries) 
1 package powdered pectin 
8 cups sugar 
Yield: About 9 or 10 half-pint jars

The ball one I made was
2 quarts strawberries
1 package powdered pectin 
1/2 cup lemon juice 
7 cups sugar 

about 8 half pints

to me at least these are very different recipies, the NCHFP has almost 1/2 as much strawberries and even more sugar. Was mine (thinned) out too much. Any way I can remake this? The bottoms of my jars seem to have juice in them when you turn them upside down.


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## PixieLou (May 1, 2010)

Did you measure your strawberries after you crushed them? Both the Ball pectin box and the SureJell pectin box say to use 5 cups of crushed strawberries - SureJell says it will take about 2 quarts of berries to get this amount, Ball says it will take about 3 lbs.

If you had small berries, you could get a lot more than 5 cups of crushed berries, which would throw off your fruit/sugar/pectin ration.

Did you end up with 8 half pints? Or more? Or less?


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## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

Definitely measure the berries after crushing. I've never seen a recipe just by the quarts, the quart measurement is just an approximate. IME 2 quarts is usually right around 5 cups, but different size berries can make a big difference in this.


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## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

I was readding in my new ball book that if you crush the berries too much, you will get too much juice and it will not set..I think thats what happened to mine.


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## DW (May 10, 2002)

My sister once remade some grape jelly and she said it told her how to do it in the pectin box.


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## MD Steader (Mar 11, 2010)

PixieLou said:


> Did you measure your strawberries after you crushed them? Both the Ball pectin box and the SureJell pectin box say to use 5 cups of crushed strawberries - SureJell says it will take about 2 quarts of berries to get this amount, Ball says it will take about 3 lbs.
> 
> If you had small berries, you could get a lot more than 5 cups of crushed berries, which would throw off your fruit/sugar/pectin ration.
> 
> Did you end up with 8 half pints? Or more? Or less?


we got more like 12 pints

The blue book recipie calls for 2 quarts (8 cups). And yes I measured that after crushing, the book even tells you too. I did a mild crush to just get the berries to level out, there was really not a lot of juice nor were they overly crushed.


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## PixieLou (May 1, 2010)

The 2 quarts of berries are before crushing. You are supposed to take 2 quarts of berries, and then crush them. After crushing, you would have about 5 cups of crushed berries.

That is why your jam did not set - you measured 8 cups of berries after crushing. Whereas you were supposed to measure the 2 quarts of berries before crushing. 

You need to really watch the terminology when reading the recipes. 

"2 quarts berries, crushed" Is different than "2 quarts crushed berries"

In the first case, you measure the 2 quarts of berries, then crush them. In the second case, you crush the berries, then measure 2 quarts.


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