This post is for new jam makers. If you are an experienced and seasoned canner, I invite you to leave your wisdom in the comments section!
You’re a new canner and your jam didn’t set. It is runny and sloshy and you don’t know what to do. Before you start to worry, let me ask you a few questions.
When did you make the jam?It can sometimes take 24-48 hours for a batch of jam to finish setting up. If your jam is still just an hour or two out of the cannerand you’re worried about the set, it’s time to chill out. Literally. Walk away. Stop thinking about it.
Okay. You’ve let the jarsrest for a day or two and it’s still more sauce than jam. Next question.Did you follow the recipe?Many of us look at jam recipes and are aghast at the amount of sugar it calls for. So we reducethe amount of sugar, thinking that it won’t do anything but make the jam less sweet.
Sadly, sugar plays a huge role in set. If you cut the amount in the recipe and you don’t compensate with a pectin designed for low sugar preserving, your jam may well be runny.
Did you check for set while the jam was cooking?Any time a recipe gives you a cooking time, it’s simply an approximation.During cooking, you also need to be checking for signs of set. You do this by using the frozen plate test, watching how the jam sheets off the spatula, and taking the temperature of your cooking jam. More on those techniques here.
You followed the recipe, it’s been a couple days since the jars came out of the canner, and still, your jam is runny. What kind of pectin did you use?If you used Certo or Sure-Jell liquid pectin, that might be the culprit. They changed their formulation a few years ago and I find that it’s not as effective as the other options on the market.
So. You followed a recipe, you checked for set, you used reliable pectin, the jars have been out of the canner for a few days, and still, the jam is too darned soft. Put a jar in the fridge and check the consistency in 24 hours. Cooler temperatures often help the jam find its way to a firmer consistency.
If you’ve gotten to the end of this post and you’re still unhappy with the way your jam turned out, you’ve got a couple of options. The first is to rename the preserve you’ve made. Call it sauce, pancake topping, or preserves. By changing the name, you shiftyour expectations and suddenly, runny jam doesn’t seem like such a big deal.
Or, if you absolutely, positively need to have a firm set, you can always remake the jam. I’ve got instructions on how to do that here. Just know that you’ll lose some yield in remaking it, and that there are no guarantees that you’ll end up with exactly what you want.
