Rhubarb Peach Jam Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is rhubarb high or low in pectin? ›

Although strawberries and rhubarb are naturally high in acid, they are low in pectin. However, they cook down to a lovely, thick consistency all on their own, without any added pectin using the easy tricks in this recipe.

Lemon is crucial to balancing those sweet flavors, but it also helps the pectin to firm up the jam. It can be added at the start of the cooking process or towards the end, but what must be taken into account is that adding liquids to the jam mixture will inevitably require the jam to cook for longer.

The quick way to thicken jam is to use boxed pectin. The mixture is pretty simple: some fruit and sugar cooked together. Add the box of pectin and it instantly thickens.

The secret ingredient to making jam without pectin is time. The fruit and sugar need plenty of time to cook and thicken. A long, slow boil drives the moisture out of the fruit, helping to preserve and thicken it at the same time.

It can be all rhubarb, sliced about 1/2″ thick, or a combination of strawberries and rhubarb. Add 1 cup of granulated sugar to the fruit, along with 3 tablespoons of cornstarch or tapioca starch. Tapioca starch is best for fruit pies, because it sets clear.

Cornstarch - Another plant-based thickening agent, cornstarch is a great substitute for pectin. Gelatin - For non-vegan menu items, you can substitute gelatin for pectin, but it will yield a different consistency.

Add pectin.

While this trick won't work for jam recipes that already call for pectin, adding pectin to a loose batch of jam while re-cooking it almost guarantees that the jam with set back up nicely. Whisk a tablespoon of powdered pectin (preferably the no-sugar-needed variety) into the pot of cooking jam.

It's Not Only About Pectin

There's another reason why lemon juice is added to most jam recipes: for safe canning and to prevent the growth of bacteria. Bringing the pH level down means jars can be sealed in a regular boiling water bath in a reasonable amount of time (sometimes as little as 10 minutes).

Cooking any mixture of fruit and sugar long enough will result in a jam that will set up in your canning jars. But longer cooking times can mean over-processed flavor, darkened color and a lower yield. Adding pectin allows you to cook jam for a much shorter time, which may result in the jam of your dreams.

Rhubarb can also become woody and stringy if it isn't harvested soon enough, so try to avoid stalks that are wider than 1-inch.

How many cups are in 2 pounds of rhubarb? ›

A cup is a measure of volume while pounds is a measure of weight so a direct calculation is difficult. If we only take liquid weight into account, one cup is eight ounces and two pounds would be 32 ounces so two pounds of rhubarb would equate to 4 cups.

If you've made jam and waited for it to cool, but it is still runny, pour the jam back into a saucepan and bring it back to a boil. Boil until the jam starts to reduce and therefore thickens.

Once the jam reaches a slow, thick boil, add lemon juice and continue to cook, stirring constantly until the jam returns to its earlier consistency, about another 5 minutes.

Before the availability of commercial pectin products, traditional jams and jellies were made by cooking fruit or fruit juice with sugar until the mixture reached a jelly-like consistency.

Sadly, sugar plays a huge role in set. If you cut the amount in the recipe and you don't compensate with a pectin designed for low sugar preserving, your jam may well be runny. Did you check for set while the jam was cooking? Any time a recipe gives you a cooking time, it's simply an approximation.

This is a very common mishap and can occur for a couple of reasons. It may be because there is not enough pectin and acid in the mixture. Or it may be because the temperature of 104C was not reached when cooking. While hot the jam will seem runny, but be patient, as it takes a while to cool and set.

The harvest season for rhubarb lasts until the end of June. Until then, pick as many stalks as you wish. After harvest, allow the plant to keep all of its leaves, to build its reserves of energy for the next year.

The chemical composition of rhubarb juice is characterised by a low relative density and low Brix (4–4.8 °Brix), due to a low sugar content (about 12 g/l), whereas the total acidity is high (about 17 g/l). The major acid is malic acid, followed by oxalic acid and citric acid.