The Cottage Smallholder

Jan - the steamer reduces the fruit in much the same way as boiling it. I make jellies both ways - either from juice made by straining through a jelly bag overnight or by steaming and the only differences I have noticed is that the steamed juice is much more concentrated and the pulp has less juice left in it.

The problem seems to be when you wish to turn the juice + pulp back into jam - the only reason I wanted to do it this way was to be able to remove the pips or stones from the fruit which you can't do easily when making jam the conventional way.

I made a small batch of damson & apple jam for myself last year and used the microwave. I left the stones in as it was for us and not for sale. The jam made up in this conventional way without a problem and didn't turn to a messy gloopy spitting mass in the pan.

However when using pulp + juice they don't seem to want to rejoin as it were to same consistency as if just boiling up the whole fruit. I know this seems obvious as you have semi cooked the fruit so I can sort of see why it wouldn't but I have seen recipes (one on here) where you add the pulp back to the juice - as for seedless blackberry jam and no one has ever mentioned getting this problem of the spitting gel like mix.

It's nigh on impossible to get this gloopy mix up to a rolling boil and therefore to get a good set.

Martin - I think you are right, I'll give that a go. Thanks so much for working this through for me

Now if you have any easy solutions for destoning 100's damsons I would be forever in your debt

I know I know - there's always something

Hi Olga

I tend to let mine finish completely before I let the tube down into a very tall bowl or jug. I'm lucky in that the grill on my oven is just below the burners and has a dop down door, so I open this door and use it like a shelf for the jug to stand on. Then I unhook the plastic tube and position it into the jug and let the juice flow into it. That way I have both hands free to gently tip the steamer slightly to get all of the juice out in one go.

In my book of instructions it suggests to siphon off a little of the juice at the beginning and pour it back over the fruit - the purpose of this is to sterilise the tube with the scalding hot juice.

I haven't made any drinks yet with the juice - only jellies and jams but I have so many apples I am going to try some apple juice soon. I do love my steamer - it is so quick compared to the messy and laborious jelly bag method although I do use this as well from time to time - mainly for herb flavoured jelly which seems to improve with the boiling method.

What do you mostly make with your juice?

Olga - I feel we were meant to meet up on here and be kindred spirits  I too have had major problems with getting a decent set on several projects. I occasionally use Tate & Lyle powder pectin which I prefer to Certo, but I only use it if I really have to.

I tend to get quite a nice amount of juice from my steamer but I do refill the base and steam the fruit for at least an hour - sometimes longer, and also give the fruit a bit of a mash half way through.

The boiling method achieves more juice because you have to add water to the fruit  to boil it - but I like the stronger flavours you get from the steaming method. With Rose hips I steam them twice - several recipe books suggest boiling the hips twice and combining the juice strained through the jelly bag so I reckon steaming them twice is just as good. My Rose hip jelly sells really quickly and I can't actually make it quick enough so it must taste OK so I can recommend this method.

I have just been given a huge amount of quinces (ornamental variety) so will see how much juice I get and let you know. I like to get around 1200ml as this is a nice amount to cook with and get a good set. I've found some varieties of quince have more juice than others and it also depends how ripe they are. The ornamental quinces I got last year were a little dry inside but I hadn't used them before so had no idea what to expect. I used the pulp to make a nice jam and thought it quite economic really as had the juice as well to make the jelly.

I'm not sure siphoning off the juice will make any difference to the steam to be honest but maybe a brainier person like Martin might be able to help with that. Just out of interest why do you like to siphon it off in stages?

p.s. I often put a layer of muslin across the base of the section where the fruit goes to stop bits falling through into the juice - or if I forget I lay it across the top of the jug when siphoning the juice into it.