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The mistake of doubling preserve recipes
Fri 16-Oct-09
7:00 pm
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fn
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During the preserving season we get lots of comments and emails from people who have doubled the quantitiues and are having problems getting a huge cauldron to set. I always advise not doubling recipes as cooking and setting times become elastically expansive.

In a wild moment I doubled our new plum and tamarind chutney recipe. I'm going to start selling our preserves locally so production is in full swing. In the original recipe the chutney sets in about five hours. By doubling the recipe it was simmering gently for over 14 hours!

So if you follow the preserving recipes from our site don't double the quantities unless you want hours of frustration and rage Smile

Fri 16-Oct-09
8:38 pm
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David B

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That might explain why a couple of the recipes I halved (for room in not too large jelly bag) set very quickly, and in the case of the haw jelly perhaps over-set a bit.

Must keep that in mind in future. I thought it was ready before the recipe said it would be, so gave it a bit longer.

Da vid

Sat 17-Oct-09
9:57 am
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Lovage
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Surely it would depend on the size of pan you were using and the heat source?

If you have a wide enough pan for the contents not to be too deep and a big enough heat source to keep it briskly boiling then enough evaporation can still occur to produce a set.

problems can occur even with a standard recipe if say you were using a tall, narrow stockpot instead of a broad, shallow preserving pan

Sat 17-Oct-09
10:45 am
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fn
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Hi Lovage

Our chutney needs to be simmered on the lowest possible setting otherwise it burns. The slow cooking means that it doesn't have to mature for months.

I agree with you about the size and the shape of the pan. All our preserving is done in a large stockpot type of saucepan. The base is the same size as the heat source. It works very well.

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