plum Jam didn't set

[lauraj]

I tried making the plum jam yesterday for the first time. After removing the stones, I had 920g of plum, added a whole lemon, the spices and pureed that altogether as book says on speed 9. Then I added 600g sugar (the recipe says 600-800) and pureed that together. Then I  started cooking it all but after 5 minutes remembered that I had planned on adding some pectin powder so added 2 tsp of that in and put it to a higher speed just for 2 seconds to mix it all through. Then continued cooking for another 50 minutes (recipe says 40-60min) but it wasn't set. So I cooked on varoma for another 3 min as recipe suggested and it still wasn't set. I thought perhaps it would thicken upon cooling but it hasn't.

Any ideas on where exactly I went wrong? I'm thinking obviously I should have added the pectin in at the beginning but it shouldn't have made that much of a difference.

Something I read said you shouldn't boil the jam with pectin in it too long or it stops working???

Another thing said I could tip it all back in the pot and boil it again with more pectin/sugar/lemon juice for a minute and it should set?

I don't so much care about this batch since it was an experiment but I want to know for next time where I went wrong? Should I add the pectin in at the very end perhaps?

Sorry this is really long :-)

[judydawn]

lauraj, here is a thread about problems with jam making. Have a read through all those pages, it might help you for next time & you might even be able to save your first batch too.
http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1551.0

[hools003]

Lauraj, I also made plum jam yesterday and mine was a big fat FLOP too! I normally do the strawberry jam with jam sugar- 500g  plus 500g strawberries. With the plum jam I used the recipe from the EDC with NO jam sugar( which has pectin in by the way) Oh well looks like I've got some plum sauce for ice cream and marinade for something! Next time I'll use the jan sugar and ignore the EDC!!! You live and learn!

[achookwoman]

this may help,  some plums have a lot of water in them when they are ripe.  so need to be cooked for longer than would be recommended.   you need to evaporate some of the liquid.   also ,use 1/2 a packet of Jamsetta for that amount of plums. jamsetta is Pectin.  made. plum sauce recently and had the same problem.   just cooked it a lot longer on the stove top,  but same problem.

[Sonan]

I made the plum jam from EDC a couple of weekends ago - I read all the posts about it taking a bit longer than normal. It definitely did not take the time that the EDC says! I ended up putting the varoma on top of the  to avoid splatter and cooked it on varoma for a long, long time and checked it every now and again until it set. I just used 2 small lemons (no skin), organic raw sugar and plums. It was delicious and made about three jars