Why jam wont set

The ultimate goal in jam-making is to form a molecular web that holds all of the fruit's juices together. And the molecule that forms the web is none other than pectin. Getting there, though, is a well-choreographed dance in which heat, sugar, and acid all pitch in to get the pectin to do its thing, pushing the mixture over the cusp from fruit syrup to jam—without going all the way to jello salad. Let's start by taking a look at exactly what pectin is and why it's important. Pectin is a long chain of carbohydrates called a polysaccharide.

It's found in the cell walls of all terrestrial plants, helping to give structure to stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit. It's most concentrated in the skins and cores of fruit, with some types, like apples and citrus, having particularly high levels.

As fruit ripens, enzymes in the fruit start to break pectin down into pectic acid, which is why very ripe fruit is both softer and more difficult to jam without adding extra pectin read the first part in this series to learn more about selecting the best fruit for jam.

When heat is applied to fruit, its cells rupture and pectin-rich fluids leak out. Once that happens, the pectin is then capable of forming that web-like structure we've been talking about technically called a colloidal system. On a microscopic level, a colloidal system is a mixture in which one substance in this case, the fruit's watery juice is dispersed in another say, a web of pectin molecules , without the two substances combining to make something chemically new.

But, without the right conditions, pectin dissolved in water is not a colloidal system—it's just free-floating pectin molecules in liquid. The key, then, is getting those conditions just right for the pectin to form its web. To understand how this all works, it helps to take a slightly closer look at the pectin molecule don't worry, not too close: no need to crack a chemistry textbook to follow along.

Pectin is an indigestible soluble fiber "fiber" just refers to any parts of plant-based foods that your body can't digest or absorb, while "soluble" means it can dissolve in water.

When pectin molecules are dissolved in water, they avoid each other for two reasons: First, they are hydrophilic water-loving , meaning that they'd rather stick to water molecules than to each other. Second, they have a negative charge and repel each other, similar to how like poles of magnets refuse to join.

So the question becomes: How do we get the pectin to stop interacting with the water and start interacting with itself? The goal here is to get pectin to stop bonding with water and start bonding with itself. Water is kind of a flirt, so the best thing to do is distract it: if we can get it to stop talking to the pectin and start talking to someone else So who's our star decoy, the one that will steal water's attention and cause it to abandon the pectin?

Lovely, sweet sugar, of course you gotta admit, she's pretty cute. Incidentally, sugar is an essential part of what makes preserves, well, preserved. All of the microorganisms yeasts, mold, bacteria that cause spoilage need water to survive and proliferate. When the water molecules are all bound up with the sugar, though, the nasties can't survive. So once the water and sugar have gone off to neck in a corner, the pectin is left by itself, twiddling its fibrous thumbs.

Sure, it can see another sad, lonely, dejected pectin across the room, but it's just not that interested. Its whole outlook is so negative, know what I mean? The answer here is to add something positive to get rid of that negativity, and one option is acid.

The amount of pectin that is naturally occurring in the fruit varies from one type of fruit to another and by ripeness counter intuitively, unripe contains more pectin. See this page for more about pectin in fruit. It takes the right balance, and sufficient amounts of each of pectin, sugar and acidity to result in a firm jam or jelly. And beyond the balance of those ingredients, there are two conditions that must be met: the right amount of heat for the right amount of time. It takes a brief period 1 minute of a hard boil, to provide enough heat to bring the three together.

Generally speaking, if your jam doesn't firm up, you were short in pectin, sugar or acidity or didn't get a hard boil. We will correct that when we remake the jam or jelly!

Finally, you CANNOT reliably make batches of jam larger than 6 cups of raw fruit of course, but the time you add sweetener, lemon juice, etc. No matter how much you stir, you won't get effective heat penetration in larger batches, so some pectin gets overcooked, while other pectin is not activated.

So, to reliably fix the jam, you will need to split it into batches of less than 7 cups each. Then clean the jars and discard the used lids. Your jars need to be clean and "sterile" - Sterile means put them into the boiling water bath when you fill the canner and then remove them right before you fill them.

That way the will be hot and sanitized. The lids should be kept in hot, steamy but not boiling water around to F, or 80 - 90 C. There are a few causes for runny jam or jelly. Usually the cause of jam or jelly not setting up is either not following the recipe correctly, not enough pectin be it either naturally occurring or added, or not cooking the jam out long enough.

Sugar is not just for making the jelly sweet. It has a significant role in the setting process too. Therefore, if you use less sugar than the recipe calls for, the jam will be runny. Try to use granulated or jam sugar. If you use Splenda, Truvia, or any other substitute, remember to adjust the pectin use more. That could be the reason for the watery jam. You either use the store-bought or the natural one found in seeds and peels. Some fruits like citrus have more of it than other fruits.

Thus, when you are working with lower pectin fruits, you need to add more of it. Some fruits have more water, and the recipe should account for this. Therefore, if you add too much water to watery fruits — the result is a runny jam. The jam needs to cool down fully before it sets properly. Hence, it might be that you checked too early. Did you double the recipe to make more?

That could be the problem. If you put a lot of fruit in one pot, the fruits and pectin will cook unevenly. The solution does depend on the cause in the first place. If the jam is still warm, it might just need to cool, otherwise sometimes re-cooking the jam will be enough to make it set again.

Your family can enjoy it in any way they like, and you can make entire batches for the winter. So what do you do when your jam is not setting?

Why is it not setting? Can you fix it? Jam does not set when it dopes not have enough pectin, which is a gelling compound naturally found in apples, citrus fruits, cherries, apricots and rose hips.

As an example, fruits low in pectin are:. Pectin makes jam set. A jam made entirely of fruits low in pectin will turn out runny. Jams made from any of the above fruits berries especially are prone to this problem.

You still need pectin. The fruits provide pectin, the sugar binds to it, and part of the water is meant to evaporate, thus creating that thick, delicious jam.