Curious about making jam in a bread machine? Here’s one woman’s experience trying it!
Most of the time, I make jam on my turquoise, 45 year old, electric stove. I’ve also made jam on a camp stove, on an induction burner, on a plain gas stove and even on a high-powered commercial gas range. And now, I’m someone who is making jam in a bread machine.
Several months ago, I spotted this post on the King Arthur Flour blog, in which they make a batch of strawberry jam in a Zojirushi bread machine. Being that I’m fascinated by all things having to do with jam making (don’t tell me you didn’t notice), I determined that this was something I wanted to try. In the interest of science, of course.
I got in touch with the folks at Zojirushi and they very nicely agreed to give me a review unit so that I could see how this whole bread machine jam thing worked. It arrived on my birthday (which was more than a month ago now) and I spent at least a week circling it warily, uncertain whether I wanted to trust my fruit to an automated machine that wouldn’t let me control the heat source.
Finally I unswaddled it from boxes and styrofoam, mashed up two cups of strawberries and got to work. The instructions that come with the Zojirushi say to combine 2 cups of crushed berries, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. For the first round, I followed the instructions exactly and cooked the jam without any additional pectin.
Fruit, sugar and lemon juice go into the pan. Then you close the lid and set it to the jam setting (don’t be fooled by the 3:45 time in the picture above, I took that before I set it run the jam cycle. It only takes 1:20 to make jam in the Zojirushi). When the cooking time is up, the machine issues a couple of friendly beeps so that you can rush over and check on your jam (that is, if you weren’t hovering very nearby, occasionally lifting the lid a little to peek at the progress).
So here’s the good news. This machine, which was designed to bake bread, makes perfectly adequate jam. It gets quite hot, the paddles keep the jam moving to prevent any scorching and it’s dead easy to use. If you’re the type who likes to freeze fruit and make small batches of jam throughout the year, making your jam in a Zojirushi is a really good option. However, it has a major flaw as a jam maker and that is that with the lid closed, you’re just never going to get the necessary amount of evaporation to get a really thick jammy jam.
I did one batch without pectin (sorry, no pictures of the jam with pectin, I knocked it over just after pouring it into the jar and splattered my kitchen entirely in sticky fruit spray) and one with and both remained stubbornly runny and without the body that a good jam should have (though the batch with 2 teaspoons of powdered pectin did firm up more than the batch without).
The picture below pairs a stove cooked jam (on the left) with the jam cooked in this bread machine. You can see the difference in the body of the jam. The stove top jam reduced by more than 1/3 during cooking, resulting in a thick-set, glossy jam. The bread machine jam on the right is juicier and has saturated the bread with its syrup. Not a bad thing, but an imperfect thing to use on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It would be perfect stirred into yogurt or drizzled on ice cream though.
I will say that I’ve been absolutely blown away by the quality of the bread that the Zojirushi makes. Of course I couldn’t resist using it to bake up a few loaves while it was hanging out in my kitchen and wow. We haven’t bought bread in weeks thanks to this machine.
I have been making more breads lately, and I would love to have a good bread machine!
I haven’t made any jam yet, but I have wonderful memories from when I was little of watching my grandmothers make jam and preserves.
I love jam and can it all year long! I’ve made everything from violet jelly to the faithful crowd pleasing strawberry. Over the years I’ve learned a lot but the one thing that is burned into my brain was my first jelly experience, which happened to be with grape. The pot bubbled and splurts of jelly landed on my arm, hot jelly sticks to your skin and it hurts because it keeps burning you!!!
I have tried Jam in my bread machine and I agree with you…not so good, but the bread is awesome…
What a great prize! I love applicances that do two things well. I’ve never made jam before but am set for this year. I have all the jars. The raspberries will be ripe soon. Thanks.
I have only been making cooked jam since last Christmas. I made about 40 jars of pomegranate jelly (we have a pomegranate tree) as gifts and it was just amazing. I had only done freezer jam before that and it never quite set up like I hoped.
I have never made home-made jam. I seriously want to and it is a goal of mine with this seasons garden bounty. I do make a lot of home-made bread though. Our favorite bread machine recipe is spicy apple bread, goes amazing with peanut butter and JAM!!
My stories about jam making aren’t exciting. I made quite a few jars of blackberry and lime jam last year that tasted amazing. All on the stove.
We make jam for our grandchildren. They won’t eat the store-bought kind. We love those kids and I guess they love our jam (and us too.)
I now make my own jam, but my first memories of it were in Michigan. We (the entire extended family) would go pick pie cherries then we’d take the bushels of them back to our summer place. The kids would pit the cherries and the moms would make the jam (and pies and cobblers). In one massive fit of jam making, I would guess that 10 or 12 batches of jam would be made!
I’ve just recently started realizing how good jams can be, now that I’m making them low sugar and to my tastes. When I was a kid, I *hated* most jams and jellies, especially the store bought ones. I couldn’t have told you why then, I just knew I didn’t like them. The only ones I’d eat were my grandmother’s rhubarb jam and gooseberry jam. All these years later, when I discovered no-sugar pectin and recipes for lemon marmalade, I’ve discovered that it’s because everything else was too sweet. My new favorite is strawberry lemon marmalade that’s bright and tart, and nearly half gone because my sister keeps coming back for refills.
When I was a little girl, I’d make batches of jam with my grandmother from homegrown strawberries and raspberries. As an adult, I now own a home on a plot of land where strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and cranberries grow wild. I’d love to try making jams from them in one of those bread machines!
i have no jam experience as of yet but i’m hoping to rectify that soon!
I’m a jam newbie (tried once, with slightly runny results) and am looking forward to trying my hand at making some this summer!
I’ve only made one batch of jam so far (although the way I talk, read, and shop about it makes it seem like I’ve been canning for centuries). It was a delightful wild blackberry jam that I am eagerly waiting for in August. Come on come on come on blackberries!
I used to make all of our jam – freezer and cooked. Freezer jam tastes so Fresh – I love it. But the space in the freezer is premium so most of my jam has been cooked. I’d LOVE to find a good jam recipe that uses less sugar. Even better would be a recipe that substitutes honey – or some other natural sweetener – for the sugar. We’re really trying to get the processed foods out of our diet. I like my jam plain – no funky combos with brandy or ‘butters’ or mixing lots of different fruits – just one fruit and nice and simple.
I made my first successful batch of strawberry jam this year. I tried making a grapefruit marmalade last year, and wasn’t very successful. Had to throw the whole batch out because it didn’t set.
I grew up making jam with my mom every year, but I hadn’t made it myself until a couple of years ago. I’m still proud of the fact that I successfully made strawberry jam in my tiny new york city kitchen. now that i’ve moved back south and actually have counter space and the proper equipment, I can make so much more! I did batches of strawberry vanilla and strawberry rhubarb just last week.
I decided to make cherry jam last summer but had run out of pectin. Rather than make the long trip into the store, I thought that I would just use corn starch instead to thicken it all up. Well, at first I thought that I’d hit the jackpot, until after I canned all of it. I ended up with this gelatinous, goopy mess at the bottom the the jars & cloudy looking jam. Now I make sure to have some pectin in my pantry all the time.
This is my first year making jam. We are growing strawberries, raspberries, and maybe will even have wild blackberries. I’m very excited.
I spent an entire morning and afternoon with my grandma making jam for all of the extended family …it was my experience with the process and one of my favorite memories.
I only started making jam last year, so I really don’t have any good stories. So far, I have made two batches of strawberry rhubarb jam and a batch of peach jam. I hope to get my mom in the kitchen with me this year to help. I think this would be a fun activity for us to do together!
When I was a child, I made jam with my grandmother on her woodstove. I probably wasn’t as much help as I thought I was! Here on my gas range, I’ve just finished rhubarb-raspberry jam. Wonderful!
i would love to try this! i am a canning novice but i want to move on to jams.
I have no jam making story because I’ve never made jam. But, you’re inspiring me to begin consider making jam and canning other foods. If I ever make up my mind and come to you one of your classes, I’m sure I’ll have a story to tell. I tend to wreak havoc wherever I go.
I started making fig jam, because I had alot of figs one year. Now, we make orange marmalade, strawberry jam, peach jam…basically everything we can get our hands on. We almost always just leave out the pectin since we eat it mostly on ice cream and yogurt!
My first memory of making jam was strawberry freezer jam with my Dad. I still make it every year and give him a few jars!
I am farmgirl stuck in a small apartment. I see this as an escape from confinement. Count me in.
Thanks
One of the first times I made jam was when I was dating my husband. We went raspberry picking and came home to make jam — it was a total mess and we were exhausted. Plus I had no idea what I was doing. It all worked out in the end though — as we just celebrated out 12 year anniversary!
Wow! You’ve got me in the mood for making bread. And jam, of course!
The only jam I’ve ever made myself is some blueberry freezer jam. I turned out pretty good. I wish I had paid more attention growing up as my mom canned everything, and she even canned strawberry jam and black raspberry jam. I loved that stuff.
I made your Strawberry/Vanilla Jam and it turned out great. I now have some Rhubarb (a priceless commodity it seems:( and can’t decide which of your yummy recipes to try. Leaning towards the Blueberry-Rhubarb or Orange Rhubarb. Wish I had more!!
One summer, my then-boyfriend (now-husband), his housemates and I went peach picking. In Oregon, that mostly means you pick the not-so-rotten ones up off the ground — they often don’t ripen until after they’ve fallen off the tree. We came home with something like 70 pounds of very ripe peaches. In August.
In order to stave off the inevitable rotting that would ensue, we spent the remainder of the day making peach jam and peach preserves in 90 degree weather in an un-air conditioned house. The showers were tied up for a good long while afterward.
I would love to get this machine. I have just recently made some strawberry-rubarb jam and while it wasn’t perfect…it was wonderful. I am looking to make some blueberry syrup/jam soon.
Thanks for hosting the give-a-way.
Jam story: I got up early to make jam the other week, the day was 80 degrees before 7am, and my roommate, bustling around the kitchen getting ready for work looked up at me and asked if I could please not make jam before she left for work on hot days. It seemed like a reasonable request. Why does it make sense to make jam and pies when it is so hot that having the oven on is crazypants?
The tastiest jam I have made is one with elderberries…too bad the only jar I made broke during a move! At least I had a few teaspoons of it!
I remember helping my mom and grandma make strawberry jam every summer when I was a kid. I look forward to the day when my daughter is old enough (she’s 5 now) to carry on the tradition.
I’ve only ever made jam with my late grandmother, but I have wonderful memories of picking raspberries in the backyard to add to our fresh blueberries (my grandmother lived in cherryfield, ME, the blueberry capital of the world…or so we claim?) and make deliciously sticky and delightful jams.
love this giveaway!
I don’t have any jam stories, but the first and only time I tried to make jelly (pomegranate)my thermometer wasn’t functioning and the jelly set so hard I was lucky to save the jars! Pretty color, though.
I remember when I was little standing on a chair next to the stove helping my dad make strawberry jam. I loved it and remember eating it on my toast for months.
I have made lime jam, muscadine jam, orange marmalade and tomato jam but never in a bread machine. Now making it in a bread machine I would love to try as we do like the more syrup with the jam.
I’ve only made one jam so far, a delicious “pickled” strawberry, but I can’t wait to try more!
I had a TON of raspberries from my CSA along with the “canning” 30-lbs box of tomatoes so I decided to jump right in and do it all in one day… plus some salsa and pickles and ketchup. In an un-air-conditioned apartment in NYC. In August. Needless to say, I was drinking giant buckets of water and was down to a pair of pj boxers and a sports bra. But it was totally worth it – and my husband even built me a set of little shelves to hold all my jars. Now i just have to plan what I’m doing this year!
(Oh, and I’ve wanted a Zo machine for years…)
No interesting jam recipies for me yet, but I bought all of the equipment. I have a section of my back yard that is nothing but wild blackberries and will be making preserves out of them for the first time this year and can’t wait. Gone are the days they get wasted and now I can enjoy them this winter!
Been making jam since childhood (though mom wouldn’t let us put the paraffin on top and by the time we were old enough we’d switched to lids & rings). But lately — amazing what a difference a copper preserving pan makes! And Mes Confiture’s recipes are amazing as are Blue Chair versions. Now if people would only give me those little jars back!
I started canning last year, strawberry jam being my first attempt. It was a hit! Only problem was I went berry picking and then realized I needed ‘stuff’ to actually can things. It was a mad scramble to locate a canner, a jar lifter, and pectin in downtown Boston before my berries turned to yuck
I’ve only made freezer jam, and it’s so fabulous. Opening a jar of blueberry jam in the dead of winter is one of the most amazing experiences! It’s like summer from the freezer 🙂
I’ve mostly only every made strawberry jam – the first time was in college using freshly picked berries! Though I’d love to try this machine, especially to try my hand at mango jam (I should have a bumper crop on my hands in a month or so!).
Just a couple of weeks ago, I put up a bunch of 4oz jars of Strawberry Jalapeno jam. With cheese and crackers or as a glaze on meat, it is TO DIE FOR. All I can say is, (because I now know from experience) you really can not be TOO careful when cutting and seeding jalapenos. Gloves or no gloves, you’re in for a world of hurting, so be prepared!
I made my first jams, and canned for the first time last week! It is kind of addicting. I love seeing those little jars on the shelf. I made 10 pints of strawberry jam and 5 pints of orange cranberry sauce. Yum!