What is the secret to making jam?

The Magic of Macerating One of my favorite tricks for jam-making is macerating the fruit first . Macerating is the process of coating the fruit in sugar and letting it rest for a few hours or overnight, which pulls some of the juice out of the fruit and creates a syrup with the sugar.

What cooking method is used to make jam?

Every homemade jam recipe uses the same technique: boil fruit, sugar, and lemon juice together until it thickens . Make it with strawberries, raspberries, apricots – any fav fruit! This super-simple jam recipe is a fun summer project, and it skips the tedious hot-water processing.

What is the best way to can jam?

Since jams are acidic, they work best with the water bath method . A nice thing about water bath canning is that it's a less intense process and doesn't require special equipment, such as a pressure canner.

Is it better to use a pressure cooker for canning?

Pressure cookers are one-half to one-third the size of standard pressure canners, causing the heat-up and cool-down times to be significantly shorter . This difference could lead to an under-processed product, leaving an opportunity for dangerous botulism spores to survive.

Why put lemon juice in homemade jam?

Adding acid in the form of fresh lemon or lime juice is important for two reasons: First, it makes for a more well-balanced jam, returning some of the acidity lost with the addition of sugar . Second, pectin needs acid to properly activate, or firm up.

What is the best sugar for jam?

Coarse-grain white granulated sugar is best for jam-making as it ensures a good clear jam, but fine caster sugar can also be used. The coarse grains dissolve more slowly and evenly, giving a better result. Granulated sugar with added pectin is also available, but it shouldn't be necessary to use this.

How do you process jam in a pressure cooker?

One thing that should have been added to its list of accolades is a jam maker. Say whaaaat?? Chop up some fruit, throw in a little sugar and citrus juice, high pressure for 1 minute , and done!

Should I stir jam while it's boiling?

5. Do Not Stir Once Mixture Is Boiling . Once your jam/marmalade it has reached a rapid rolling boil do not stir it. Stirring it will alter the temperature of the jam/marmalade meaning it will take longer to reach the setting point.

Is it ok to pressure can jam?

Can You Pressure Can Strawberry Jam? Strawberry jam should not be pressure canned because it will not be able to survive the process . The excess heat involved in pressure canning will break the gel, and the jam will be too runny.

How long does pressure canned jam last?

"The guideline from the USDA is that all unopened home preserved food using the water bath or pressure canning method should be used within one year for the best nutritional value unless otherwise called out in the recipe," says Steve Galucki, who works in research and development for fresh preserving at Newell Brands, ...

What PSI is needed for pressure canning?

For canning vegetables and other low-acid foods in a weighted gauge pressure canner, the food is processed at 15 pounds pressure at altitudes above 1,000 feet . In a dial gauge canner, the pressure is not increased between 1,001 and 2,000 feet—use 11 pounds pressure.

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (2024)

Learn how to make homemade jam in the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker with our ultimate guide to pressure cooker jam making. Includes Instant Pot Jam recipes, tips and more.

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (1)

Table of Contents

Instant Pot Jam

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (2)

On a beautiful spring morning, we headed to the Portuguese market to grab some fresh fruit, for a big Instant Pot Jam Making experiment.

We wanted to try making jam that wasn’t just strawberries and have a good afternoon session of jam making. We could load the jam up into the freezer and have enough for the rest of the year and beyond.

The main reason for doing it, is that we have seen a lot of Instant Pot Jam recipes lately, that call for corn flour and I wanted to prove that you can make delicious homemade Jam without needing to add corn flour.

How To Make JamIn The Instant Pot

Making Jam in the Instant Pot is easy.

You throw your ingredients into the Instant Pot, give it aquick stir and set the time to 2 minutes. This is followed up with a 10-minute naturalpressure release (NPR).

You can mix and match depending on what fruit and what sugaryou plan to use. As long as you have a good ratio of fresh fruit to sugar, thenyou have it in the bag!

Favourite Jam Fruits = Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries, Plums, Grapes, Peaches, Figs
Favourite Sugars = Honey, Caster Sugar, Stevia,

You can also mix and match if you’re using fruits from the same family. For example, our readers favourite is our Instant Pot Strawberry Jam, in it we mention that you can swap it around and have all strawberries or a mix of strawberries and raspberries if you wanted to.

The sugar can also be mixed and matched. Our favourite sugarbalance is a tablespoon of honey alongside caster sugar.

Imagine if you have a huge amount of fresh raspberries to use up, or they are lower priced because they are in season, then collect up your mason jars and grab some sugar from your pantry and get jam making.

Jam Making MasonJars

This brings me to the main accessory you will need for making Instant Pot Jam. A set of mason jars are essential for storing your just made homemade jam in. You sterilise them prior to adding the jam and then pour your jam mixture into the jars.

Even better, once the Instant Pot Jam has cooled down, you can screw the lid on and place them in the freezer.

Imagine making your delicious jam in the summer when strawberries are in season, to then enjoy your homemade jam at Christmas time. Or even give it a Christmas gift!

Instant Pot JamRatio

To save you having to scroll through lots and lots ofrecipes, let me tell you about the Instant Pot Jam ratio instead.

86%

That is 86% sugar quantity to the quantity of fresh fruit.

If you have 1 kilo/1000g of fresh fruit, then you would know that you need 860g of sugar.

Its easy to remember if your head and can save on trying to work out if the amount of fruit you have is enough for making Instant Pot Jam with.

Instant Pot Jam Explosions

I had a jam explosion the first time I made Instant Pot Jam,it was totally my OWN FAULT as I wasinpatient and didn’t see the point in waiting for natural pressure release.

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (4)

I did the unthinkable and moved it from sealing to ventingafter the 2 minutes.

What happened is that the red-hot strawberry syrup came outinstead of steam.

Our walls where bright red and it took ages to clean it allup.

Instant Pot Jam Pectinvs No Pectin

There is always the question about whether you need pectinor not to make jam. Well I decided to experiment with it and found that itreally wasn’t necessary.

If you look at my Instant Pot Raspberry Jam No Pectin post, you will see that I did one round with pectin and one without. Both looked nearly the same and they both tasted just as good.

I would only recommend using pectin if you are making a jamthat is very thin.

A useful alternative to using pectin is jelly powder. Jellypowder sets very well when boiling water is added. Add a sachet in after thejam is cooked and stir it in before you cool down the jam.

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (5)

Pick the flavour that matches your jam and it will tastejust as good.

Why Make Jam InThe Instant Pot?

You’re probably wondering, why not just get your stock pot out and make homemade jam on the stove and forget about your Instant Pot Pressure Cooker.

Which of course you can.

But it is like a lot of Instant Pot genius recipes, once youdo it the Instant Pot way, you simply don’t want to go back. You want to makeit in the Instant Pot over and over again!

What I love MOST about Instant Pot Jam compared to stove top jam is the ability to dump and go.

You’re not stood there waiting for the sugar and the fruit to do their magic, instead you can dump the ingredients into the Instant Pot, then come back when it beeps.

Instant Pot Jam –3 Ways

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (6)

We have 3 delicious Instant Pot Jam recipes for you to tryout at home.

Instant Pot Strawberry Jam – Our original strawberry jam in the Instant Pot, many of our readers have loved this recipe. The strawberries taste amazing and we can’t just have one slice of bread with strawberry jam in our household.

Instant Pot Raspberry Jam No Pectin – Using nothing to bind it together this raspberry jam is so thick it doesn’t need anything extra. It uses just fresh raspberries, caster sugar and honey.

Instant Pot Peach Jam With Pectin – Another new addition but just as delicious, making peach jam from leftover peaches, though you can use peaches, apricots or nectarines in this recipe.

Instant Pot Lemon Curd – Not technically a jam, though many do know it as the lemon jam. A perfect use of leftover lemons and tastes just like a lemon dessert. I love lemon curd and its so frugal to make too.

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Instant Pot Jam –FAQ

Over to the readers, with the most frequently askedquestions for making jam in the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker.

Can You Freeze YourInstant Pot Jam?

Absolutely! When we made our Instant Pot Raspberry Jam No Pectin, we had some on toast for supper, then the rest went into smaller mason jars and are stored in the freezer.

Can you use frozenfruit in your Instant Pot Jam?

Yes you can! But remember frozen fruit tends to carry morewater, therefore making raspberry jam without pectin, will be harder and youmight need to strain some of the extra liquid it generates.

If you have any InstantPot Jam questions that I have not covered above, please ask in the commentsbelow and then I will add it to the post for future Instant Pot Jam makers!

Can’t make it now?Then pin it for later!

Recipe This | How To Make Jam In The Instant Pot (3 Ways) (8)

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