Alternative jam recipes

Blackberry and apple is nice. I've made some blackberry jam today to clear the blackberries out of the freezer. Sadly I forgot to sieve out the seeds and now I will have to do it every time I use it because I hate the seeds! I've been making it for years - I must be losing the plot!

My Granddad used to make strawberry and gooseberry - still had the strawberry flavour but not quite as sweet. Me and my DD are going fruit picking next weekend for straws and gooseberries so I'm going to need to find a recipe. I very foolishly lost my Granddad's.

Gooseberry is one of my favourites its very tangy, which I like.

Where I live gooseberry growing is a competitive sport, like leek growing in the North East. I bought quite a lot of the very large competition "rejects" and made them into jam. I thought that they might be tough for a dessert but they cooked down wonderfully as Jam.

I seem to make preserves faster than I eat them though and most of my family don't really eat it.
My sister in law grows even more Gooseberries than I do so its no good giving her any.

I think somewhere in all of us is still this instinct to preserve all this lovely food in case of hard times.

They were made from last years crop I hasten to add. I have only just had about two pounds off my two plants so far this year.

Apple, plum and ginger. Or, as DD1 many years ago wrote the label: apl, pluw an jnj jann. Knew, then, that she'd got the idea how letters worked. I still label that spice jar JNJ.

I usually add either gooseberries or red currants to strawberry jam to get a better set. (About half a pound to three pounds of strawbs) Red currants give the strawberries a lovely tang and bring out the flavour - but I have to freeze the strawbs to wait for the currants to catch up.

Then there's freezer jam of course. Everything that's left in the freezer at the start of the jam season - except gooseberries. They don't like currants.

I like the sound of strawberry and rhubarb GA. What proportions do you use?

Bags - apple, plum and ginger sounds interesting - think I'll give that one a try when the plums and apples are ready. I only have a few plums this year, but once again the damsons are putting on a good show.

NfkDumpling - I use half the amount of rhubarb to strawberries and the juice of a lemon to help with the set.

I've got about six pounds of strawberries waiting for my attention at the moment, but I've already made half a dozen jars today and I'm jammed out for the evening.
I have a huge bowl of tayberries, blueberries, currants and gooseberries too - too few of any of them to make single fruit jam so it's all going in together and we'll see what that tastes like.

I bought rhubarb and vanilla at the school Summed Fair.

it's all gone already.

Any raspberries left over after you're all 'jammed out' makes lovely raspberry gin in time for Christmas the Winter Solstice.

And then you can make ginny raspberry jam with the sozzled fruit!

My all time favourite is plum and mulled wine jam. I use home-made spiced elderberry wine. It's not too sweet and is wonderful on toast.

Oooooh plum and mulled wine - that really does sound good. Do you have a recipe please merlot?

Yes, I'd like that recipe too if possible. One of my plum trees is so laden this year the branches are having to be propped up in case they break under the weight.

I may have tweaked this a bit and I used home-made elderberry wine which is already spiced because I use it for mulled wine at Christmas but I think supermarket mulled wine would do the trick and then you don't have to add many spices.

1.8kg (4lbs) red plums - halved and stoned
375mls (13fl oz) red wine
Mulled wine spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves but you could use those sachets of spices for mulling wine.
A piece of orange zest from about a quarter of an orange - without the pith.
1.8kg (4lb) granulated sugar

Put the plums and wine in a large pan.

Place the mulled wine spices and orange zest in a muslin bag and add to the pan. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for about ten minutes or until the setting point is reached. Remove any scum from the surface.

Pour the jam into warm, sterilized jars etc., etc.

A good point about this jam is that using wine means it keeps it's lovely colour.