Just recently I have made 6 batches of Mango Jam. All turned very dark brown while cooking and are almost black when jarred but they taste great. What is the reason for the color change?
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Hello, and welcome to Stack Exchange. Has this happened before?– Daniel GriscomCommented Jul 30, 2016 at 13:22
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I have a whole lot of cut mango in my freezer which I was planning to turn into jam once the weather cooled off. Now I am not so sure I want to have 10 or 12 jars of black jam to try to give away. Does anyone know if this mango behavior is common? Or just a freaky anomaly?– Lorel C.Commented Jul 30, 2016 at 15:03
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2 Answers
I reckon it could be due to oxidation of fruits.
It's very common once you leave fruits that are cooked/uncooked in the open air. It probably helps if you could add a little salt in there ( even though it may seems weird, but it definitely works).
The reason why factory made jam does not turn dark at all is because of all the additional food addictive and preservative that is inside the food. I honestly, do not recommend keeping fresh mango jam for too long because it does go bad very quickly.
It happens to a lot of other food stuffs like potato etc.
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2One of the common additives used to prevent browning is vitamin C, and it's often sold with canning supplies for that purpose.– Cascabel ♦Commented Jul 30, 2016 at 15:27
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It's the fact. It's called addictive or preservative. They are all the same. I guess everyone do realize why certain food can be kept so long for ages, like literally years but doesn't spoil? When you look behind like (E254), blah blah, all these is the one that kept your food for ages and they also all food addictive.– BryanCommented Jul 30, 2016 at 19:23
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@TeoChuenWeiBryan Additive, my friend, as in something that's added. Addictive means you'd get addicted to it, like alcohol, or cocaine. I was just making a joke, it's a simple mistake :) (Of course, people may add addictive substances to their products, but we would hope that this is not common practice!)– Au101Commented Jul 30, 2016 at 19:27
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of course we hope it's not, unfortunately it is :( i miss those days where food addictive ain't a common thing you know.– BryanCommented Jul 30, 2016 at 19:28
It could be oxidation as Teo Chuen Wei Bryan has already said in their answer. It might also matter what sort of pot you cooked the jam in - metal pots other than stainless steel sometimes react chemically with the food and that could lead to darkening.
