jam jars

[mint]

Flushed with the success of my mirabelle jam a few weeks ago, I am now about to make some damson jam.

I am fairly confident about what to do.  Only thing is, I have now run out of the jam jars that I have been saving.

Tomorrow, I shall buy some of those kilner type jars with the rubber bands on the lid.

I know how to sterilise the jars (thanks for the advice, folks) but what do I do to sterlise the rubber bands?

Thank you. 

[Rabbie]

My mother used to use the solution you use for sterilising babies bottles for the rubber bands.

[mint]

Thanks, Rabbie.  So it's Milton then?

Can someone tell me whether you can get Milton in France or, if not, what is the equivalent?

Saves me traipsing round the shops in this steamy heat.

[sid]

Milton... "sans danger pour la fosse" ??

[mint]

Oh, Sid, I never throw anything "unsuitable" down the drain!  Where I live now, on a quiet lane, there is a large bank (grassy and not plate glass as in RBS) opposite the house and I take things like( for example, the dirty water from my uphostery cleaner![;-)]) greasy water or small quantities of bleach over there and dump them!

[Théière]

I thought you had gone all cockney for a minute.

[Dog]

I had a recent find at the bottle bank, sitting by the side were four boxes containing a large quantity of vintage kilner jars in different shapes with various lovely embossed names on the glass.

Even the seals are expensive so they went straight into the boot. I reckon at a Vide Grenier they'd want 3 euros each for them.

[Patf]

SW17 - we bought some plain simple jars with screw lids to put jam and chutney in. Supermarket or Gamme vert etc.

No need to faff about with sterilising, just warm the jars, fill to the top and put the lid on.

We have re-used them twice and the jam etc still keeps.

[mint]

Thanks, Pat, just the sort of info I need!

[osie]

After already making hundreds of jams each year... the most expensive thing about jam making is the jam jars...

The cheapest I found were 12 for 12 euros in leclerc.. the simple ones.

I give them a clean in soapy water.. put them (lids too) in the over at > 150 till ready to use.

Then just pour hot jam in to almost the top... voilla

btw: for what its worth I would always put them in the oven... if you are going to all that effort to make a jam.

p.s. A really cheap way to get jam jars is to buy the bonne mamma ones when there is a super special offer on... the jam is cheaper than buying the jars alone.  The problem is that you got to eat all that jam before you can start using them...

[idun]

How do you use all that jam? I hardly use any jam or marmalade. Even when my kids were at home I didn't. And that I suppose is one of the reasons why I have never made any.

[osie]

I serve it to our clients for breakfast... its mulberry jam so a bit of a novelty...

[mint]

Thanks, osie, got the jars this afternoon in Leclerc:  12 jars with screw top lids for 9 euros (prix choc....only choc was to my wallet!)

I love glass containers because you can always clean them and there are no smells and no stains so I do save mayonnaise jars and so on. 

Yes, I think I remember you gave the tip about putting them in the oven some time back and that is the method I now use.  Also very good to be able to make bread crumbs or even shortbread whilst the oven is on low (I inherited a massive oven with the house and I hate to put it on for just one or two items).

idun, OH loves all homemade preserves, etc.  Also, I often give them away as presents and they are always very well received.  Mind you, I say "often" but the truth of the matter is that I have made 2 preserving things since I have been in France.  The first lot was green tomato chutney (recipe thanks to Gardian) and the second lot was my mirabelle jam from a couple of weeks back and now, damson jam, this afternoon.

Osie, we have a huge mulberry tree in the garden but it didn't flower this year because we had it severely reduced in size in February but the leaves are very thick and it's survived so I hope for mulberries next year.

[osie]

12 for 9€ sounds extremely cheap... maybe they are the slightly smaller ones than I get.... or I should be buying for next year.

This year I got some with 'homemade' as the design on the lid... fairly obvious really but a good idea all the same.

Good luck with next years fruit... I have a Japanese Mulberry tree with very black fruit... I make a jelly rather than jam as there is a green stalk on each berry.

This year I invested in a steamer fruit juice extractor which works wonders... saves lots of time if you are doing big batches.

Now will be soon a good time to do some elderberry jam... Personally, I have had enough of jam making till next year

osie

[idun]

[quote user="osie"]I serve it to our clients for breakfast... its mulberry jam so a bit of a novelty...
[/quote]

I have never had mulberry at all. Naturally I knew of the mulberry bush, but not of it's fruit and looked it up and it says loganberry like berries. Is that right.

Truth is that I like few jams. Strawberry, raspberry and blackcurrent and that is it and I hardly have any of them. I find all the others, plums or apricots fade and I'd rather have just butter than any of these others.

[osie]

I would say that it looks like a blackberry and tastes like one but with more perfume... a bit like a logan berry but less rasberry like.  Mulberry buses dont exist.. they are all in fact trees. 

Personally I dont eat jam but As a novelty the jam does really well... and the sortbet is really great too...

[Dog]

I am never quite sure what a Mulberry tree looks like. The one we had at school in UK was a 60 foot tree with big red fruit.

In many car parks here they have small trees perhaps 10 feet high with long thinnish black fruit that look like elongated raspberries - whatever they are they taste lovely and very sweet. I can't believe nobody picks them. I always have a few when I visit.

[Pommier]

Here are photos of mulberry trees and fruit

http://www.google.fr/search?q=mulberry+tree&hl=fr&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7RNSN_en&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=kNAdTpy6HcOA-wbgpaXCCA&ved=0CBsQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=821

Though I'm with Idun on this: eat very little jam so buy a jar of it once in a blue moon.

[idun]

Sorbet, lovely, I could made and eat that, no problem.

[mint]

Ah, can't do photos as I have, yet again, misplaced the camera lead.

The fruit are elongated raspberries but they do break up in your hand however careful you are picking them.

My tree is sooooo beautiful to look at and, even in the early spring, after we had the tree "pruned", it looked magnificent with its bare branches and all the tulips underneath.

Now, the leaves are thick, provide wonderful shade and I hate the thought of cutting off bits of it but it's quite near the house.

[osie]

Here is our pic... http://www.le-murier.com/images/hotel/large/murier.jpg

I had a 10m * 10m net underneath it this year ... but there were still a few sticking out branches that managed to rain fruit on us.

[mint]

What a magnificent tree, wonderful foliage.  Thanks for posting it, osie.

I try and pick up the fallen leaves every couple of days because, when we moved here last year, it took us days to clear the ground of leaves and the leaves are so thick and substantial and heavy.

Will look forward to the flowers next spring and then the fruit after that!

Edit:  the jam that I have made today is a rich, dark colour and tastes fantastic![:D]

[Mr Ice-ni]

A couple of days ago I made my first batch of 2011 fig jam using a mixture of re-used jars

1 x Le Parfait with wired-on lid

1 x Aldi pasta sauce

1 x pate/terrine type

2 x Le Parfait "proper" jam jars

As much as I enjoy making jams and giving them to friends I am reluctant to give away our best Le Parfait with screw lids. Hence holding on to anything capable of holding jam and recycling them.

As an aside the fig jam is even sweeter than normal despite my using less sugar (only 1kg of confisuc : 2.2kg fruit). The figs exuded far more water than anticipated. The state of the fig tree this morning hints at more jammery this p.m. so will have to wait and see what happens.

TTFN

John

 

 

[mint]

John, the le parfait jars are cheaper at Leclerc than anywhere else at the moment, even cheaper than at Netto.

I have only given one le parfait jar away and that's to people who thought nothing of bringing me a large bottle of Ricard.  I even use my last bit of checked cotton square and tied it with some fancy ribbon.

As the advert says, because they are worth it!

If fig jam is really, really sweet, I think I'd like to maybe make chutney with the figs instead.  Do you have a recipe for fig chutney, SVP?

[KathyF]

I love making jam, whether using the French method or the British, depending on the fruit, and we always seem to manage to get rid of it all before it has a chance to go off.[:D] I have a proper jam pan at last and have always saved jam-jars and reused them.  My only trouble this year is not having enough in France for the summer. I was given a lot of raspberries and blackcurrants recently (had to go and pick them, but you know what I mean) and that used up almost all the jars I'd been saving for when the jam apricots arrive up here in Normandy. Luckily a friend is also a jam-jar hoarder and she has just come to the rescue. Guess what I'm spending this wet weekend doing....