My Very First Time in the Can & It Ain’t Gonna Be Sweet
Paid a little visit to Ma Needle in the South over the weekend & she hooked me up with all my canning needs. Isn’t mooching a beautiful thing? So…now I have no excuse not to get my CAN in gear. And because berry season will quickly be coming to a close I think I shall make preserves my first attempt. (OK…it may also have something to do with the fact that my mother said the easiest, narcoleptic cat simple thing to can are jams. She just ASSUMES I will take the easiest path. Geeeeze. Soooo judgmental.) So jams it is. I grew up eating my grandmother’s trip-an-old-nun-to-get-to-the-last-jar-raspberry preserves, so I know I can get my hands on some killer recipes. The problem? Sweet sassy malassy with the sugar, Granny Needle! How do we not all diabetes and shares in a moo-moo manufacturing company? Save a little cane for the rest of the continent.
Since I would prefer my children not to need dentures by the second grade…I would like to find some recipes with a wee bit less sugar. Like none. I also don’t want any artificial sweeteners. And since everyone gave me such great canning advice last time…why bother to do my own research. (I am actually doing research…but there is nothing better then a tried and true recipe in which someone else has suffered through all the trying and a truing.)
Oh…and can you all be quick about doing my your homework; berry season is almost over here and I you forgot to get started in time.
Use Pomona’s Universal Pectin. Whereas in a recipe using Ball pectin you would use 5-7 cups of sugar, in Pomona’s you only use 2 cups. HUGE difference especially when you buy organic sugar which is far pricier. And it’s still easy to use. Our natural food store has it or you can find it online.
Thanks for the great tip Heather!
Ball makes a no-sugar pectin, which is what I used just today to make some strawberry jam – almost missing the season, too
We don’t like our jams sweet here, either.
Mary – Doesn’t it have artificial sweeteners in it though? I can’t eat those as it makes me very ill…
Nope – no sweeteners of any kind. We like out jams to taste like fruit, so we don’t put anything at all in with the fruit. A bit of water or juice, fruit, and pectin. Easy-peasy. Pretty tasty, too, but you might find it a bit tart if you’re used to very sweet jams.
I’m having a hard time tracking down the no sugar pectins. Amazon has them by the case…but kinda want to start with just a box or two of each until I figure out what I like. What chain stores carry this stuff?