The strawberries are here, the rhubarb is here and we are in heaven! Luckily we love rhubarb every which way which is great since there aren’t many seasonal fruits in Seattle until mid June.
I just discovered the coolest product and have been playing around with it. Since I’ve been making all our food I’m painfully aware of exactly how much sugar we are eating. If my calculations are correct we are going through an average of 25 pounds of sugar per year per family member. According to the USDA the average American consumes 156 lbs per year so I’m feeling pretty good about that but around the turn of the century that number was 10 pounds per year so we’ve still got some room to conserve.
Now that fruit is appearing I’m thinking ahead to jam, plus we’ve been making a lot of ice cream, popsicles and homemade soda lately and although the yeasties do eat much of the sugar there is still some left in it. I’ve done my share of marathon jamming over the years but I’m always shocked each time I add the sugar. It’s way more than the quantity of fruit!
Contemporary pectin recipes require you follow their recipes exactly or risk poisoning or no-set. So when I saw a packet of Pomona Universal Pectin at PCC I was curious.
Pomona pectin is made from citrus fruit and uses a calcium mixture to set it so you can decide for yourself just how much sugar to use (or stevia, or honey, etc.) The recipes on the back are fairly nebulous and more like guidelines since you can really make your mixture according to taste. This may be daunting for a first time jammer but I’m completely smitten with it. How liberating to actually decide just how much sugar lets the fruit taste shine through – not to mention minimizes the amount of anti-nutrients I’m putting into my small kid’s bodies.
One other cool thing for me – it works equally well for freezer jam so nutrients are still left in that lucious fruit, I haven’t boiled them all out trying to set the pectin.
And the best part is I was able to use it to make jello! No creepy chemicals, food dyes or artificial flavoring and my choice of sugar levels. We aren’t vegan here but if you are I believe this is the only way to get truly vegan jello – gelatin comes from boiled bones.
My sour patch guy LOVES rhubarb so I made a huge batch of rhubarb fixin’s for him. First I stewed cut rhubarb in a small amount of water, then I strained the fruit out. I reserved the juice for rhubarb soda and jello and made jam with the stewed fruit. Nothing went to waste! In fact I plan to use the jam (since it’s not too sweet) as a base for a rhubarb custard pie sometime this week.
It’s so awesome to have so many things in the house that I can let me kids eat nearly anytime they like, and as much as they like of it. Rhubarb jello…now my mind is on to other flavors Kraft would never concoct but we may have growing in the garden…my do I love a good challenge!
11 responses so far ↓
1 Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS // Jun 8, 2009 at 10:18 am
I love Pomona’s Pectin and felt similar excitement as you when I first discovered it! I have never made jello out of it though. I am boring and just stick to jam!
As always, you’re inspiring!
2 admin // Jun 8, 2009 at 11:22 am
Hi Wardeh – are you still doing your sugar challenge? I thought of you when I realized you could make a no sugar jam so I’m glad to hear from you this morning!
3 robin // Jun 8, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Pomona’s pectin is the best! I make cooked fruit jams or jellies, and then instead of canning them, I freeze them. Best fruity flavor and no crunchy sugar the way you get sometimes with freezer jams. I have started to use only honey or turbinado or raw sugar. We prefer the flavor. I like your blog-stumbled across it looking for rhubarb jam recipes with Pomona’s pectin.
4 Betsy // Jul 1, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Help! How do you mix the pectin? I did it in a blender and I ended us with a big ole mess of thick water on the sides but way too much powder below the blades. I was only making freezer strawberry so I just ended up with a loose jam/topping, but I wanted to make it really work. How did you mix it? Thanks. Great blog.
5 admin // Jul 1, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Hi Betsy,
I didn’t try to use a blender since I was tired of washing dishes. I just whisked it with a little whisk in a glass measuring cup. I’ve never had good success with blenders. They are my nemesis. Someday maybe I’ll own a vitamix…good luck!
6 Sarah Jane Butcher // Jul 6, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Sooooo just to recap even tho the recipies that come with Pomonas Pectin call for 1/2 cup honey for a low sugar batch I can reduc it to 1/4 cup or even eliminate it with good results??? Also does anyone have tips for removing berry seeds ?
7 admin // Jul 6, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Sarah, absolutely! They give you general guidelines to follow but they say that you can experiment and use whatever you want. As far as removing berry seeds you need to strain the fruit. You can buy a jelly strainer at just about any Walmart-y kind of store or online, or you can simply make a bag from muslin that you buy at the fabric store. To use muslin you would line a colander with it, ladle you smashed berries into it then tie up the four corners and hang it from the faucet over a catch bowl in the sink. You then use that berry juice with the pulp and seeds strained out to make your jelly. I’ve never tried that with raspberry or strawberry since the seeds are so small they don’t bother me but I always make blackberry & blueberries into jelly rather than jam and this is the method that I’ve used succesfully for many years.
If you get stuck again feel free to post and I’ll try to walk you through it. Good luck!
8 Heather // Jul 6, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Has anyone used this product before 2009? I ask because I have used other low sugar pectins for freezer jams and they get moldy almost instantly once they thaw. I’m leary of using all my summer fruit with this new product only to have mold growing and no jam in November. Any long time users????
9 admin // Jul 7, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Hi Heather, this is the first year I’ve used it. That is interesting about the mold. I’ll have to post back in the winter when we run into the issues…
10 Charta // Aug 23, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I have been using this pectin for a few years now. No problems with mold when making jam with my boiling water canner. I do love the flavour!
11 April Can Jam – Herbs in Jars // Apr 14, 2010 at 11:15 pm
[...] At least I can use my Pomona’s pectin to make homemade jello. [...]
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