dicalcium phosphate for making jams

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This year I was looking to make jams with much less sugar and wondered if any one has ever used dicalcium phosphate in jam making. I was looking thru my Stocking Up 2 cookbook and this is one of the methods suggested. By adding this most of the recipes call for only about 1/2 c. of sugar or honey as opposed to 5 c. of sugar in the low sugar pectin recipes. Also wanted to know if anyone could give me info on using white grape juice instead of honey or sugar in jam making-I have had no luck finding anything so far on the net or in books & mag. Right now I have a bunch of blackberries I would like to make into jam so any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Patty

-- Patricia Haggstrom (vikingfm@midmaine.com), September 15, 2000

Answers

Don't know about the dicalcium stuff, but white grape juice makes some of the best jelly in the world. It's ver smooth and just plain delicious. If you live close to a winery and can get fresh juice-at the right time of the year-do so. I use the regular grape recipe in the pectin box.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), September 15, 2000.

Cindy thanks for that info on grape juice. I did find something called Pomona's Universal Pectin. It has monocalcium phosphate and it works by reacting with the calcium that is naturally present in the fruit. However, it would be nice to find this mineral separately to save a bit of cash. The price of this packaged stuff ranges from $2.99 -$3.29. The cheaper price was at a store about 70 miles from here and the more expensive one was at a store just 12 miles from here, so you can guess which one I chose. I will make this jam tomorrow and post a message and tell you how it came out. Patty

-- Patty (vikingfm@midamine.com), September 15, 2000.

Pomonas always works fine for me but you really gotta work at getting the powder thoroughly mixed with the sugar, I mean thoroughly . If you don't, it will gel seperately and just float around in clumps doing nobody any good. Stuff lasts forever, stock up when you can and just use it whenever.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 15, 2000.

Thanks you guys for the info. I tried the Pamona's and the blackberry jam came out great. I sweetened it with white grape juice and about 4 T of partially crystalized honey that I had. After I heated the grape juice I threw it in the blender with the pectin and had no problem with the mixing. I did call the "jam line" and ask her if I really needed to add lemon juice to wild blackberries, answer no because they are much more tart than the domestic ones- course we knew that but had to check. It worked great and I am thrilled that I can make jam with out all that sugar. You can buy directly from that company-prices are as follows 1-4 boxes $3.50 ea. prices include the shipping- 5 or more $3.25 and if you buy it by the pound it is $32.20 and that includes the calcium powder with it and includes shipping also. This woman was very nice. I called her Fri eve about 4:30 and left her a message saying that I wanted to make the jam on Sat and would appreciate if she could get back to me. She called me Saturday morning about 9:30 to give me the answers and was more than happy to answer more questions for me. I think it was even easier than regular jam-once you read the directions a few times and got it all straight in your mind. Thanks again for the help-Patty

-- Patty (vikingfm@midmaine.com), September 16, 2000.

Hello from England - we're trying not to let all of our wild blackberries go to waste either and are trying to get a sugar free jam recipe going. A few of you have mentioned using grape juice - have you always used it in the concentrated form, as you can't find that over here, and I was wondering if any of you had any recipes that didn't require concentrate? we just had a go using berries, grape juice and apple pectin, but all we have is a good berry sauce - it just won't thicken. Look forward to hearing from you, Kate

-- Kate trenchard Kenny (trenchie@hotmail.com), August 27, 2001.


Kate:

I don't know about sugarless jam--but this year I made all my grape and blackberry jam without pectin and all set up fine. The trick was to heat for a long time (stirring often) until a test of the jelly on a metal spoon showed that it was the consistency of Jello before it is set up hard (I'm not sure what you call jello in England--gel? gelatin?)Hope that helps. I found the jam better tasting--more like the berries without pectin (hey and saved .35 cents to boot! Whoohoo!

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), August 27, 2001.


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