63
votes
Accepted
How can I get a very thick or viscous paste (e.g. caramel, ganache, thick mayonnaise) into small-necked squeeze bottles without heating it up?
What about a piping bag? Fill the bag with a spatula, pipe into the bottle.
- 77k
48
votes
Accepted
Jam with honey & without pectin has a saucy consistency always
Jam is set with pectin or it is syrup. Period.
If you are not adding pectin then you are relying on whatever pectin is available in the fruit you use. Strawberries don't have a lot. Oranges have a ...
- 47.6k
36
votes
Accepted
Do I need to add pectin to make jam?
I would probably just follow the recipes. If they're good, the amount of additional pectin they call for is what's necessary to get the jam to set well. If you use less than that, it might end up ...
- 58.4k
21
votes
Accepted
Bananas - too many - so how can I preserve them?
You don't mention what variety of banana you have access to. There is a host of banana varieties and they all have different characteristics in regard to flavor and texture.
I will assume that you ...
- 47.6k
18
votes
Do I need to add pectin to make jam?
this answer is an addition to Jefromi's answer
To extract and activate the pectin from fruit, you need a certain cooking time - that's one of the reasons our ancestors cooked jam for up to two hours ...
- 60.4k
14
votes
How can I get a very thick or viscous paste (e.g. caramel, ganache, thick mayonnaise) into small-necked squeeze bottles without heating it up?
Edited: Concerns were expressed about such items being suited for food use. I've added comments in the text on "Food Grade" items plus a note at the end.
How can I get a very thick or viscous paste ...
- 559
12
votes
Accepted
For Pressure Canning, can I use any other jar than Ball’s Mason Jar?
The important part of the system are the lids. The ideal lids are the Mason-type (no matter which company produced them), with a flat top and a separate side piece with thread.
Another type that ...
- 140k
11
votes
Accepted
How do bakeries get smooth jam to top their cheesecakes with?
You are thinking of jelly like actual jelly in a can: Sweetened fruit juice thickened with pectin. While some bakeries use special pectin to make glazes (look at LM pectins) most jelly fillings and ...
- 47.6k
11
votes
How can I get a very thick or viscous paste (e.g. caramel, ganache, thick mayonnaise) into small-necked squeeze bottles without heating it up?
There are thick food grade syringes being made for that kind of application..
https://www.amazon.com/Syringes/dp/B07C71C1LH/
The plunger comes out at the back easily, so you can pour your sauce into ...
- 211
10
votes
Accepted
What are berry grains?
The term rouhe in Finnish means "something coarsely ground" [1], [2]. (Google translates it as "groats", but that's a bit too simple.)
Double-checking with the English, German and Italian version of ...
- 60.4k
9
votes
Jam with honey & without pectin has a saucy consistency always
In addition to Sobachatina's very good answer: Some fruit contain a lot of natural pectin. Black and red currants are a prime example of that (they also contain a lot of acid, to set the pectin). I ...
- 1,096
8
votes
Do I need to add pectin to make jam?
In addition to the two answers already posted, I thought I should mention that pectin is not present in all fruits in great enough quantities to thicken jam, which is another reason a recipe may call ...
- 1,086
8
votes
Citrus allergy, need substitute
If you are not allergic to citric acid you can use it as a substitute for lemon juice in canning.
Related Can I use citric acid instead of lemon juice when canning?
- 5,458
8
votes
Accepted
what is the point of making jam if it consumes pectin which requires fruit to make
The "paradox" here is a result of an oversimplified explanation of reality. The crux is in
the traditional purpose of making jam is to preserve fruit
For the addition of pectin to make no ...
- 140k
8
votes
Accepted
Should I compensate for lost water when working with frozen rhubarb?
That’s a tricky question.
While yes, you are discarding some of the juice when straining thawing rhubarb, some rhubarb recipes are struggling with managing the liquid even fresh rhubarb tends to lose ...
- 60.4k
7
votes
How to make home made jam retain the fruity taste?
Most fresh fruits will lose their "sweet fresh flavor" when cooked. (*geeky stuff at end) When making jams, jellies etc., a good amount of sugar is added. This is done for a couple of reasons, the ...
- 5,458
7
votes
How should I make jam out of coffee cherries or coffee cherry husks?
We have a coffee tree we have been growing in our sun-room for 10 years. This year after we harvested the coffee cherries and hulled the beans, I decided to try making coffee cherry jelly. I didn't ...
- 71
7
votes
Why are grape preserves so hard to find in the USA?
TL;DR: likely because demand was too low to sustain commercial distribution
Barring any relationship to a specific historical incident, it's very difficult to find out why a specific food is no ...
- 65.5k
7
votes
How can I get a very thick or viscous paste (e.g. caramel, ganache, thick mayonnaise) into small-necked squeeze bottles without heating it up?
Similar to the other suggestions, you can use a large mouth water bottle, sports drink bottle, or restaurant style condiment bottle as a syringe. I've used a large mouth funnel into one of these with ...
- 257
7
votes
How can I get a very thick or viscous paste (e.g. caramel, ganache, thick mayonnaise) into small-necked squeeze bottles without heating it up?
A wierd idea - if you squeeze the bottle, put its neck into the paste while squzeed and then let go, it will suck up the food inside? :o
- 193
7
votes
Should I compensate for lost water when working with frozen rhubarb?
Rhubarb becomes mushy when cooked even if fresh to start with.
If you are not using the liquid that comes with the frozen rhubarb thawing, but discarding it, you are going to screw up any recipe that ...
- 19.1k
7
votes
Does hot jam disinfect the jar?
Many people certainly think so; it's a common preparation technique. By policy, here on SA, we need to answer you with the advice of the relevant healthcare authorities, which is: no, it is not ...
- 65.5k
6
votes
Are there advantages to an unlined copper jam pan?
As @caconym said, copper ions can bind to pectins, which are the gelling agents in jam.
The gelification behaviour of pectin depends on serveral factors, but for those in jams, the important ones ...
- 1,157
6
votes
Accepted
How to prevent home-made apricot marmalade from going mouldy
There are two parts to the process of making jams, marmalades (and the like) shelf stable for extended periods:
The first part is the recipe - It must contain the correct combination of fruit, sugar, ...
- 5,458
6
votes
what is the point of making jam if it consumes pectin which requires fruit to make
The pectin is not required to preserve the fruit. You can make perfectly safe jam or marmalade with just fruit and sugar, it just might be a bit runnier than you would prefer. The pectin is added to ...
- 10.6k
6
votes
Making blackberry Jam with fully-ripe blackberries
I make a fair bit of blackberry jam, or mixed fruit jam heavy on the blackberries - we have some growing at home (better for flavour than texture) and pick the others from hedgerows. This year they'...
- 45.2k
5
votes
Fruit color change
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 ...
- 330
5
votes
Accepted
Composition/safety of cherry pits
http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/slideshow/foods-that-can-kill-you Which I think may be overstating the danger, but, their claim is:
After some quick Googling, we found that ...
- 8,642
5
votes
Are there advantages to an unlined copper jam pan?
After periodically coming back to the question over a few months, I think I've found some answers. Remco's answer gives part of the justification (crosslinking pectin chains), but there are other ...
- 33.2k
5
votes
How do bakeries get smooth jam to top their cheesecakes with?
I haven't actually tried this on a cheesecake specifically but, when I need a spreadable jelly, I'll heat it in a pot until it goes back to being a runny liquid. (It's original state before the ...
- 202
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible