What is the secret to making jam?

Use fresh, dry, slightly under-ripe fruit . Strawberries and raspberries are best layered with the sugar and left for a couple of hours before cooking. Plums, currants, gooseberries, cherries etc need to be lightly poached before sugar is added. Pectin, naturally found in fruit is vital to make your jam set.

How long do you process jelly in a pressure cooker?

Pressure cookers soften the fruit and extract the pectin of Jams and Jellies. Most need no more than 4-5 minutes cooking.

Can I use my pressure cooker for pressure canning?

For these reasons, the USDA does NOT endorse using their canning processes or processing times in electric pressure-cooker appliances. These ap- pliances are acceptable for cooking, but not for canning .

How to make jam step by step?

Here's How to Make Jam in 5 Easy Steps Mash the fruit and sugar together: Use a potato masher to work the jam and sugar together — this releases moisture from the berries and gets them cooking faster. Boil the fruit for 20 minutes: Bring the fruit to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

How do you can jam step by step?

First off, we're going to break jam making down into 5 simple steps. Wash and cut fruit. ... Sanitize jars. ... Cook fruit until it sets. ... Fill warm jars with hot jam. ... Close the jars and process them in a water bath. Mar 29, 2016

How to make homemade jam set?

To set, jam needs pectin from the fruit and some varieties have more than others. For extra pectin, add a muslin pouch of lemon rind and seeds. Cook the fruit in a heavy-based pan until it's very soft but still holds its shape. This releases pectin and means your jam won't have tough bits of fruit.

Why put lemon juice in homemade jam?

Adding acid in the form of fresh lemon or lime juice is important for two reasons: First, it makes for a more well-balanced jam, returning some of the acidity lost with the addition of sugar . Second, pectin needs acid to properly activate, or firm up.

What thickens homemade jam?

If you simply take fruit and cook it with some sugar to sweeten it a little, it will get thick enough to turn into jam by the naturally occurring pectin in the fruit and the process of reduction . Reduction occurs when we simmer the fruit, and the liquid turns to steam and evaporates, which thickens the jam.

What not to do when making jam?

How to make jam: mistakes to avoid Confusing jam with marmalade. Don't be equipped, at least a little bit. Think that pectin powder is the enemy. Choose the most ripe fruit. Creatively interpret the fruit/sugar ratio. Neglect cooking. Don't know what to do with the surface foam. Skip the saucer test. More items...

Can jams be pressure canned?

Strawberry jam should not be pressure canned because it will not be able to survive the process. The excess heat involved in pressure canning will break the gel, and the jam will be too runny.

Does homemade jam need to be pressure canned?

Preserving Jam With Water-Bath Canning As berries and fruit are high in acid, there's no need to “pressure can.” For water-bath processing, you'll need a large deep stockpot with a flat bottom, a well-fitting lid, and a rack that fits at the bottom or a water-bath canner.

Do you need a pressure canner for jam?

Process High-Acid Foods in a Water Bath Canner botulinum, so they don't need to rely on heat to get the job done. In turn, they're more appropriate for water bath canning—which, again, involves lower temperatures than pressure canning . Examples of acidic foods include fruits, pickles, jams, and jellies.

How long does pressure canned jam last?

The act of canning doesn't preserve food forever. But you can often get 18 months to two years out of your higher sugar products like jams and fruit canned in syrup. As long as the seal is good and the lid seems properly concave, your product should be just fine.

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (2024)

Learn how to make homemade jam in the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker with our ultimate guide to pressure cooker jam making. Includes Instant Pot Jam recipes, tips and more.

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (1)

Table of Contents

Instant Pot Jam

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (2)

On a beautiful spring morning, we headed to the Portuguese market to grab some fresh fruit, for a big Instant Pot Jam Making experiment.

We wanted to try making jam that wasn’t just strawberries and have a good afternoon session of jam making. We could load the jam up into the freezer and have enough for the rest of the year and beyond.

The main reason for doing it, is that we have seen a lot of Instant Pot Jam recipes lately, that call for corn flour and I wanted to prove that you can make delicious homemade Jam without needing to add corn flour.

How To Make JamIn The Instant Pot

Making Jam in the Instant Pot is easy.

You throw your ingredients into the Instant Pot, give it aquick stir and set the time to 2 minutes. This is followed up with a 10-minute naturalpressure release (NPR).

You can mix and match depending on what fruit and what sugaryou plan to use. As long as you have a good ratio of fresh fruit to sugar, thenyou have it in the bag!

Favourite Jam Fruits = Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries, Plums, Grapes, Peaches, Figs
Favourite Sugars = Honey, Caster Sugar, Stevia,

You can also mix and match if you’re using fruits from the same family. For example, our readers favourite is our Instant Pot Strawberry Jam, in it we mention that you can swap it around and have all strawberries or a mix of strawberries and raspberries if you wanted to.

The sugar can also be mixed and matched. Our favourite sugarbalance is a tablespoon of honey alongside caster sugar.

Imagine if you have a huge amount of fresh raspberries to use up, or they are lower priced because they are in season, then collect up your mason jars and grab some sugar from your pantry and get jam making.

Jam Making MasonJars

This brings me to the main accessory you will need for making Instant Pot Jam. A set of mason jars are essential for storing your just made homemade jam in. You sterilise them prior to adding the jam and then pour your jam mixture into the jars.

Even better, once the Instant Pot Jam has cooled down, you can screw the lid on and place them in the freezer.

Imagine making your delicious jam in the summer when strawberries are in season, to then enjoy your homemade jam at Christmas time. Or even give it a Christmas gift!

Instant Pot JamRatio

To save you having to scroll through lots and lots ofrecipes, let me tell you about the Instant Pot Jam ratio instead.

86%

That is 86% sugar quantity to the quantity of fresh fruit.

If you have 1 kilo/1000g of fresh fruit, then you would know that you need 860g of sugar.

Its easy to remember if your head and can save on trying to work out if the amount of fruit you have is enough for making Instant Pot Jam with.

Instant Pot Jam Explosions

I had a jam explosion the first time I made Instant Pot Jam,it was totally my OWN FAULT as I wasinpatient and didn’t see the point in waiting for natural pressure release.

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (4)

I did the unthinkable and moved it from sealing to ventingafter the 2 minutes.

What happened is that the red-hot strawberry syrup came outinstead of steam.

Our walls where bright red and it took ages to clean it allup.

Instant Pot Jam Pectinvs No Pectin

There is always the question about whether you need pectinor not to make jam. Well I decided to experiment with it and found that itreally wasn’t necessary.

If you look at my Instant Pot Raspberry Jam No Pectin post, you will see that I did one round with pectin and one without. Both looked nearly the same and they both tasted just as good.

I would only recommend using pectin if you are making a jamthat is very thin.

A useful alternative to using pectin is jelly powder. Jellypowder sets very well when boiling water is added. Add a sachet in after thejam is cooked and stir it in before you cool down the jam.

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (5)

Pick the flavour that matches your jam and it will tastejust as good.

Why Make Jam InThe Instant Pot?

You’re probably wondering, why not just get your stock pot out and make homemade jam on the stove and forget about your Instant Pot Pressure Cooker.

Which of course you can.

But it is like a lot of Instant Pot genius recipes, once youdo it the Instant Pot way, you simply don’t want to go back. You want to makeit in the Instant Pot over and over again!

What I love MOST about Instant Pot Jam compared to stove top jam is the ability to dump and go.

You’re not stood there waiting for the sugar and the fruit to do their magic, instead you can dump the ingredients into the Instant Pot, then come back when it beeps.

Instant Pot Jam –3 Ways

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (6)

We have 3 delicious Instant Pot Jam recipes for you to tryout at home.

Instant Pot Strawberry Jam – Our original strawberry jam in the Instant Pot, many of our readers have loved this recipe. The strawberries taste amazing and we can’t just have one slice of bread with strawberry jam in our household.

Instant Pot Raspberry Jam No Pectin – Using nothing to bind it together this raspberry jam is so thick it doesn’t need anything extra. It uses just fresh raspberries, caster sugar and honey.

Instant Pot Peach Jam With Pectin – Another new addition but just as delicious, making peach jam from leftover peaches, though you can use peaches, apricots or nectarines in this recipe.

Instant Pot Lemon Curd – Not technically a jam, though many do know it as the lemon jam. A perfect use of leftover lemons and tastes just like a lemon dessert. I love lemon curd and its so frugal to make too.

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (7)

Instant Pot Jam –FAQ

Over to the readers, with the most frequently askedquestions for making jam in the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker.

Can You Freeze YourInstant Pot Jam?

Absolutely! When we made our Instant Pot Raspberry Jam No Pectin, we had some on toast for supper, then the rest went into smaller mason jars and are stored in the freezer.

Can you use frozenfruit in your Instant Pot Jam?

Yes you can! But remember frozen fruit tends to carry morewater, therefore making raspberry jam without pectin, will be harder and youmight need to strain some of the extra liquid it generates.

If you have any InstantPot Jam questions that I have not covered above, please ask in the commentsbelow and then I will add it to the post for future Instant Pot Jam makers!

Can’t make it now?Then pin it for later!

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (8)

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