High Altitude Jams

High Altitude Jams

The Struggle

For those of you hoping the purpose of this article is to announce the revival of the late 90’s Jock Jamz CD series, sorry to burst your bubble, it is not. It is about…. Y’all ready for this? PECTIN! Pectin is an amazing ingredient that is found in the cell walls of almost all fruits and vegetables. It’s the building block that hold the plants together. On our site we have 5 different ingredients all labeled as pectin. But they all have different tasks when it comes to jelly and jam making. Most commonly you will have an old family recipe or find one on the internet that says something along the lines of “bring the mixture to a boil or the pectin wont work!” This isn’t entirely true. There are many factors that help make pectin turn into a gel. Recently we received a question from a customer who lives at a high elevation. They were having trouble with their jellies and jams and they asked

“Can I make jam or jelly without it boiling?”

Can’t Even Boil Water

Boiling is a term a lot of people use because it is very easy to understand. It’s common knowledge that if you put a pot of water on the stove, turn the gas on high and wait, the water will eventually boil. The boiling point of water occurs at 212 F (100C) at sea level. But at 3300 ft above sea level water boils at 205.5 F (96 C). Does this mean that pectin must reach 205.5 F (96 C) at 3300 ft above sea level? Our customer still felt the needed to heat the jam to 212F (100C) every time they made the recipe. The Thankfully the answer is no, you do not need to bring the jam to a full boil or 212F (100C) for it to gel. It is true that pectin will gel when it reaches a certain temperature, and that temperature is 195 F. This isn’t the only factor that causes the gelling of pectin. Remember earlier when I mentioned we carry 5 types of pectin? It may be intimidating to try and figure out what type of pectin to use for what situation. Do you want to make traditional fruit jelly/jam or a savory low sugar jelly/jam like our delicious bacon jam? Below you will find a chart that will help you figure out the right type of pectin you will need the next time you make jelly or jam.   

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