Hot answers tagged blueberries
7
While you could probably do dried blueberries in a VERY low oven (150F), you'll most likely need to prop the door open slightly to allow moisture to escape. You'd be best to do them in an actual food dehydrator which will have a fan to expell the moisture being released from the food.
Keep in mind however that if dried as they are, they will shrivel up ...
6
In the case of most bush berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries) depth of color and ease of picking are the most indicative signs of ripeness. The berries that are on the sunniest side of the bushes will ripen first. The greater more sun exposure they receive the quicker they ripen, thus the reason that a grouping of berries even in one area will ...
4
Blueberries, and especially underripe blueberries, have a lot of pectin. Blueberries have about .4g per 100g compared to apples which have .5g. As you suspected this is almost definitely causing the problem. Many blueberry jam recipes consist of just heating pureed blueberries with sugar and acid- no added pectin needed.
When you heated your pureed ...
4
There are many causes for the jam being grainy, but most commonly, as @hobodave suggested, is due to inadequate dissolution of sugar.
The test is simple. Get some jam into a bowl, add a little bit of water, stir, does it resolve the problem? If yes, then it is a dissolution problem. There, you may want to change the method of making that jam -- if your ...
3
Common names of plants are a very unclear matter. There are big differences not only between languages, but also regional differences within a single language.
There are lots of (closely related) plants which are sold under the name blueberry. And probably not even the person who grew (or gathered) them can tell you the exact species. While it does matter ...
3
Store them unwashed. Take out any "bad" ones. I've had decent luck adding some paper towels to wick away extra moisture that seems to speed up the spoilage. Martha Stewart suggest going even further and spreading them out on paper towels on a sheet pan. I have no idea who keeps a fridge empty enough that they can store full sheet pans in there, though.
I've ...
3
Were your blueberries grainy? I occasionally get a pint that have a grainy texture. I've heard that this means they aren't quite fresh, but they usually taste just fine despite the texture. I'm not sure if this particular graininess translates to a jam though.
Jam can also get grainy from sugar that isn't fully dissolved. This can happen more easily with ...
2
A couple simple, practical things to go with Sobachatina's suggestions:
First, you can break up the gel with a serious blender, not just a whisk. If it gets liquid really flowing, it'll disintegrate pretty well.
Even easier, though: just don't chill it, at least not that much. What exactly you can get away with depends on your ice cream maker, the ...
2
Jam is fruit, sugar, and pectin. You added more fruit but all that liquid in the fruit wasn't gelled with the pectin and sugar.
You could try adding sugar and heating the jam to get the pectin to gel with the new juice. This could work but is likely to be error prone. Pectin gelling is tricky and it might not re-gel.
I would recommend adding some sugar, ...
2
Most fruits, a few days:
Use kitchen towel to dry them (don't wash)
Line a sheet pan with kitchen towel
Spread them so they don't touch (any mold on one berry won't spread)
Refrigate
Fragile berries:
Put the pan in an inflated plastic bag (so the bag doesn't touch
the berries)
If you see any mold on some berries, you can delay mold formation on ...
2
Graininess caused by excess undissolved sugar is fairly obvious. The grains will be sweet and will dissolve on the tongue.
Alternatively, with some fruit including blueberries, the skins of the fruit can be dry or tough and stay in grainy fragments in the jam. Again, this is obvious. The individual shreds will be dark and flat, etc.
Another, in my opinion, ...
2
What I do is use a big plastic bowl. The bowl is about 18" in diameter at the top and holds about 2 gallons of water.
I fill the bowl about 1/2 to 2/3 full of blueberries and then fill it to the brim with water and leave the water running into it. As the bowl is filling and when it's full I gently agitate the berries with my hands.
Most of the chaff ...
2
Other than the thickeners mentioned above, sometimes I prefer the taste of cooked flour or oats to corn starch. Oats will leave everything moderately translucent if you use whole uncooked oats or will cloud the pie like flour (but solidify more) if you use quick oats.
Another touchy option that won't effect flavor: pectin. Pectin is naturally contained in ...
1
I have made dried blueberries in the oven by simply placing them on a baking sheet and drying for about 12 hours at the lowest temperature my oven would go (250). 12 hours at 250 was way too long. While the berries are edible and a similar texture to what you would get if you put them in a dehydrator, they taste a bit burnt. If you can find the magic ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
