desertgardener wrote:
> Some of my jam recipes call for macerating the fruit and sugar before
> making jam, but the same recipe in another book won't mention it. What
> is the advantage to doing that? Plus some suggest 24 hours, some 6
> hours. I'm curious if I'd get different results.
>
> Cyndi


For one thing, it will draw some of the juice out of the fruit which
will help to dilute and spread the pectin throughout the mixture.

gloria p

gloria.p wrote:
>
> desertgardener wrote:
> > Some of my jam recipes call
> > for macerating the fruit and sugar before
> > making jam, but the same recipe in another
> > book won't mention it. What
> > is the advantage to doing that? Plus some suggest 24 hours, some 6
> > hours. I'm curious if I'd get different results.

> For one thing, it will draw some of the juice out of the fruit which
> will help to dilute and spread the pectin throughout the mixture.

The sugar will draw plenty of juice out of the berries
without any need to cut or break them.

--
pete

pete wrote:
> gloria.p wrote:
>> desertgardener wrote:
>>> Some of my jam recipes call
>>> for macerating the fruit and sugar before
>>> making jam, but the same recipe in another
>>> book won't mention it. What
>>> is the advantage to doing that? Plus some suggest 24 hours, some 6
>>> hours. I'm curious if I'd get different results.
>
>> For one thing, it will draw some of the juice out of the fruit which
>> will help to dilute and spread the pectin throughout the mixture.
>
> The sugar will draw plenty of juice out of the berries
> without any need to cut or break them.
>


Look up the definition of "macerate".

gloria p

gloria.p wrote:
>
> pete wrote:

> > The sugar will draw plenty of juice out of the berries
> > without any need to cut or break them.
> >
>
> Look up the definition of "macerate".

That's a good idea.
It doesn't mean what I thought it meant.
Sorry about that.

--
pete

pete wrote:
>
> gloria.p wrote:
> >
> > pete wrote:
>
> > > The sugar will draw plenty of juice out of the berries
> > > without any need to cut or break them.
> > >
> >
> > Look up the definition of "macerate".
>
> That's a good idea.
> It doesn't mean what I thought it meant.
> Sorry about that.

I thought is was some kind cross between "lacerate" and "masticate".

Anyway, my procedure is to:
dump the fruit in the pot on the stove,
turn on the stove
and then dump in the sugar
and then stir until boiling,
and then add pectin with a little more stirring
and then can.

Plenty of juice is drawn out by the sugar rather quickly
while stirring during the time that it takes to heat up.
My new understanding of "macerate" is that it means
to let the fruit sit cold in the sugar for a while before cooking;
I don't really do that with the fruit,
except for the time that it takes to put down the empty sugar cup.

Blueberry jam and raspberry jam
are the jams that I make the most often.

--
pete