How to make jam thick when cooking for the winter: 7 easy ways

The ideal stuffing for baking is home-cooked sweet preparations for the winter. Difficulty in cooking can arise only if there is an excessively liquid consistency of the dessert. In this case, it is very important to know how to make jam with a thick consistency using various food additives so as not to spoil the dessert. These additives and their use will be discussed further.

Why do you need to thicken the jam

When preparing a filling that is too liquid, you may later encounter it flowing out of the pies, even when the edges are tightly clamped.

Also, the liquid consistency leads to wet and damp pie dough. To solve this problem, some try to put less jam, but in the end the dish still turns out to be not so appetizing.

The best way is to thicken the jam to the desired consistency.

Why does jam come out liquid?

Many families pass recipes for seamings from generation to generation. Everyone definitely has memories that are associated with delicious, thick, viscous jam, as grandmother cooked in childhood. But in most cases, the housewives cannot reproduce such a dessert on their own, the density is not the same.

Why dessert comes out liquid:

The jam didn't boil down.
There was little introduction of granulated sugar.
It is important to remove foam.
There is no need to take a pot for cooking, dishes that have low walls will help excess moisture evaporate quickly.
Preparing jam should not last 3 hours in a row. It is recommended to do this in 3 stages. The raw material is first boiled, boiled for 15 minutes and removed from the fire, cooled. Repeat the procedure 3 times.

To save liquid jam, it must be boiled down. This method is not recommended if the dessert is prepared from raspberries, because the longer the treat is cooked, the more vitamins will be lost. This berry is rich in vitamins, so harvesting for the winter not only reminds of summer, but is also a therapeutic and prophylactic agent. Raspberries also contain a lot of organic acids that work well as preservatives.

Prolonged boiling of strawberries is not recommended.

Fruits are boiled soft, strawberries become unaesthetic brown, and sometimes with a bad smell.

But long-term cooking is useful for a delicacy of apples and pears. Fruit slices are saturated with sugar, becoming similar to marmalade.

If during the preparation of jam it comes out very liquid, you need to increase the cooking time. Fruits from the same tree, harvested in different years, may have different juiciness. If there is a lot of liquid in the fruit, then a lot of it will stand out in the dessert.

Also, when the treat comes out liquid, it is recommended to drain the liquid and cook only it.

After the hot syrup is sent to a basin with fruits and berries. This method of thickening can be used in the case of cooking gooseberries, apricots, black currants, pears. The taste of sweetness and the degree of juiciness of the ingredients used may vary. Therefore, to boil fruits from one tree, each subsequent year may require a different amount of granulated sugar.

To thicken the delicacy, it is recommended to add sand, heat the mixture. Initially, pour in ¼ of the value, and after boiling in 2 stages, see how the delicacy thickens. It happens that it is necessary to increase the volume of sand by 1.5 times.

How to thicken liquid jam?

To make the jam thicker, various food additives are used.

Pectin

Thanks to pectin, the flavor of the dessert is preserved. To cook strawberry jam by pouring pectin, you need 10 minutes of time. With the use of pectin, fruits with berries will remain intact, and the jam will have a bright shade of fresh fruits.

If you reduce the cooking time, you will get more dessert.

How much pectin should be added to dessert will depend on the amount of sugar and liquid in it. If you take 1 kg of fruit, you need to throw in 5-15 gr. pectin:

Based on granulated sugar and jam juice, 1 to 0.5 pectin requires 5 gr.
If the ratio of sand to liquid is 1 to 0.25, then pectin needs 10 gr.
When making jam without sugar, put 15 gr. pectin.

Add pectin to boiled dessert, mixing it with sugar beforehand to prevent sticking. By adding pectin to a delicacy, it is boiled for no more than 5 minutes, otherwise the jelly-like properties will be lost.

Quittin

Quittin treats are easy to make. When preparing a dessert from whole fruits, you need to fill the fruits with sand at night, and in the morning add quittin and cook jam for 5 minutes. If the fruits are ground through a sieve, then the quittin is added immediately, and the delicacy is cooked for 5 minutes.

Starch - can it be used?

Starch is a powder that has no aroma and taste. It is used occasionally to make jam.

When starch is added to the dessert, the palatability of the delicacy decreases, due to this, more sugar, citric acid should be added to improve the taste.

Starch diluted in water is introduced into a liquid dessert in a couple of minutes. After pouring the product, the jam is boiled for no more than 3 minutes. The cooled dessert will thicken.

Gelatin

Classic recipe - cooking dessert with gelatin. The delicacy is made as follows. For 1 kg of fruits and 1 kg of sand, 40 gr. gelatin. Dry it should be combined with sand, and then prepare a dessert, following the recipe.

Agar-agar

When making jam with the product, pour 1 tsp into 250 ml of liquid. thickener. Initially, it is filled with water, set aside to swell. After the thickener is brought to a boil, it is stirred so that there are no lumps and sediment.

The prepared solution is sent to dessert, mixed.

Flour

To make dessert with medium liquid thick, flour is introduced in the amount of 1 tbsp. l. for 250 ml of jam.

How to cook:

Put a pan on a small gas, you should wait for the workpiece to boil.
Flour is slowly pouring in.
Dessert should be stirred all the time to avoid lumps.

Manka

This thickener is used for fillings, as it practically does not affect the original flavor of the dessert. Semolina is introduced as follows: 1 tsp. for 350 ml or 300 gr. goodies. If the mass is of a highly liquid consistency, the volume increases to 2 tbsp. l.

To prepare the filling, jam is poured into a cauldron, semolina is poured in, mixed and left for 15 minutes. This time is enough for the cereal to absorb excess liquid and swell.

Next, the pan is sent to a slow fire, the mass is stirred so as not to burn. After 2 minutes, as it boils, the delicacy should be removed from the heat and set to cool.

How to cook thick jam for the winter?

To prepare a dessert with a thick consistency, you must follow the recommendations.

Thick delicacy comes out if you use fruits rich in pectin: strawberries, raspberries, apples, plums, currants, gooseberries, cranberries.
Pectins are found in large quantities in unripe fruits. To make a thick jam, they take ripe fruits and add some unripe ones to them.
Thick dessert is obtained by using fruits with a sufficient amount of acid. If the test cooking showed insufficient density, then you need to pour in the lemon juice.
To make the jam thick, you need to cook it quickly to prevent the destruction of natural pectin during cooking. Prepare a delicacy by making a strong fire, stirring often. The dishes are used with low walls and a wide bottom.