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 remember my dad making massive batches of blackberry jam in the tiny cabin the in Pacific Northwest where we spent every summer. The pot seemed to take over the kitchen!
Last year I bought my first 25 lb box of plum tomatoes, with visions of tomatoes in water and tomato marmalade dancing in my head. One weekend later, after sweating away in my kitchen for almost 2 days straight, it was all processed. It took a lot of work, but in the end was completely worth it 🙂
Actually, I’ve never made jam. But, I’m hoping to change that this year, seeing as how there’s an abundance of free fruit at hand (kumquats, loquats, plums, etc.) this summer. Yum!
My mom and I like to make jam and jelly from the Concord grapes and tart cherries she grows in the backyard each year. Excellent!
One year I picked wild blueberries in the forest then came home and cooked them down in the maple syrup I had made a few months before from my own maple trees. I didn’t use pectin or any thickener and had fabulous slow cooked blueberry jam all winter long.
Love your site, have been reading it for over a year now.
I made jam with my neighbor every apricot season from her trees for over 20 years.
Mostly I did the picking & lifting and always lots of eating.
It also gave me a great appreciation of a good jam.
Keep up the good work!
I’ve planted some berries to make some jam this summer, can’t wait!
I made a batch of jam in college with strawberries and blueberries. It was delicious!
I don’t have an interesting story, but I absolutely love freezer jam. I make it with my sister every year and we are hooked on that fresh fruit flavor. One time I made a rich chocolate cake and drizzled raspberry freezer jam (that had been warmed) on top and served with whipped cream. It was a hit!
I made my first jam last year out of nearly off peaches and honey (I wasn’t going for shelf-stable, it was just an experiment)and it was delicious. Since then, I’ve learned way more about making jam and preserves, and this spring was mostly variations on lemon curd for us (and our overproducing lemon tree), and I’m excited to try more.
Thanks for the contest!
I made grape jelly last summer for the first time…Hoping to make strawberry jam when our strawberries start producing!
My first time making marmalade I thought it wasn’t firming enough, so I added extra pectin. The jars all turned out so pretty that I gave them to several friends because I was so proud. Later, I opened some and realized the extra pectin had hardened the orange peels into crunchy little bits. 🙁
I’ve been making jam for years, and last year made blackberry jam in my tag sale bought Sunbeam maker. I bought blackberries in pints from front yard in the neighborhood and followed recipe in manual. Mine turned out as syrup, which was so delicious! Ate it on ice cream, pancakes, everything! The strawberries in my garden are keeping me busy now. I’ve canned many jars of jam and have frozen some strawberries for later. Thinking about making strawberry ice cream, strawberry syrup and maybe strawberry rhubarb pie. Ahh, summer!
I remember going out to pick raspberries with my mom and my aunt, usually my siblings & cousins trailing behind. We’d pick (and eat) raspberries for a couple of hours, then we’d all go back to our house, where my mom and aunt would make jam. I don’t know how much they’d end up making, but I’m pretty sure we had enough to last us all year plus however much went home with my aunt and cousins.
I wonder how the jam-maker on this unit would do with something like lemon curd. I’d love to find out!
I grew up on home made jams and jellies as well as almost everything else. I am working toward producing more and more of what we eat and appreciate when one item will do the work of two or more. This was quite interesting to learn about.
I remember making grape jam as a child with my mother. Picking the grapes off my neighbors grape arbor. Cooking it for hours then putting melted wax on the top. Lots of good memories with canning
Oh, the many things I could make with one of those. Mmm.
A few years back I went to Cary, GA from my home (then) in Cochran, GA. I picked and picked and picked. Waay more than we could ever use up. The blueberries the large sweet type (not sure of the variety they grew).
I made one of jam on my harvest gold electric range and then took the rest down to St. Augustine to visit my parents. I made a batch for my mom to give away at Christmas. Problem was, she had one of those (then) newfangled solid-core electric ranges. NEVER get one! I cooked and stirred and cooked and stirred and stirred some more and more. But never did my jam come to a full boil. Finally I gave up. I hadn’t really tracked how much the jam had reduced. But I poured it into the jars anyway, hoping for the best. I finished my prep of my jarred jam. Voila! It set perfectly. Lessons from this: 1) never buy one of those solid core stoves – even if they seem to be easier to clean and I’m not sure this caveat doesn’t also apply to the flat-top ranges either, I’ve used one for other cooking– and it does take much longer for water to boil (as was the case for the solid burner stove mom had); AND 2) watch your reduction if you have no-boiling issues. I just got lucky!
I started making jam 3 years ago to try to give my kids food that was closer to home with simple ingredients. I also make bread, so this would kill two birds with one stone 🙂
Jam, I made the horrible mistake of doubling and using a too small pan. Not a good day, but a learning day. Thanks for the contest!
I am just getting into making jam. I have been the lucky friend of a jammer for a while and last year she produced a pear-almond jam that inspired me to get started. I love fresh bread and fresh butter – seems fresh jam is all that I’m missing! 🙂
Thanks for the review, the giveaway and the great blog!
I have yet to make jam, but it’s on my to-do list!
We used to can in my grandmother’s basement. She has the perfect set up, with an extra stove, a huge sink and plenty of counter space. Now I have to can in my kitchen, which is a decent size but feels too tiny when I really get going 🙂
I can’t believe I missed your class! Perhaps it was before I started making jam…. my very first jam was made last summer with peaches and nectarines from Styer’s. It was freezer jam. I graduated to canning pretty quickly because my freezer just isn’t that big.
For years I have been afraid to can, but at the same time crazed to want to learn. A friend of mine finally agreed to teach me as long as it would be our secret. She had been asked many times to teach canning and preserving food, but really didn’t have the time. I am so glad she made time for me. I have since made approximately 50 jars of jam. Everything from strawberry to pina colada. I have yet to tackle canning using the pressure cooker- I have an irrational fear of them… but green beans would be so nice this winter.
I would try this with a new bread machine, I too make bread twice a week, but I have never used a bread machine to make jam. would Love to win the bread maker
I would be dancing with glee to win a Zojirushi!! (Hey, that rhymes!) Lately, I’ve been making jam outdoors on the side burner to my gas grill. I like that the kitchen doesn’t get all hot as the water bath canner heats up. I can also water the garden while the jars boil.
Wow, what a thrill that must have been to get to try that machine out! I just made strawberry jam yesterday,ended up with 11 jars (I had to eat one!) so good, nothing like eating your own food made by hand! Had some on top of vanilla ice cream, perfect!
Would love to try this! I never would have thought this could be done–thanks for the informative posts!
Making jam/jelly is my favorite hobby and consider it fun–I wish I had more time to do it! We pick wild fruit when it is in season every year and give most of the jam/jelly I make from it as gifts. I’d love to try it in this machine! (I also like your glass measuring cups that are pictured)
: )
it’s not technically jam, but I have made meyer lemon curd twice. the first attempt was a success, the second one, not so much. I had a glass jar of curd sit at the back of my refrigerator for weeks before I threw it out.
I started making jam when I was about 9 and asked my Dad to teach me how to make marmalade (still one of my favorite foods). He had no idea, but didn’t tell me that at the time, so the next weekend, armed with the Ball Blue Book, we made marmalade. My dad now makes multiple types of jam, mango chutney, plum sauce, applesauce, and a variety of other things every year, primarily from his own garden.
There is still a very tiny but very stubborn brown spot on the kitchen ceiling from my first jam-type attempt – apple butter. It was the very beginning of what has become a full-blown canning obsession and I’m leaving it there as a reminder (well, at least until we repaint the kitchen someday…)
Last summer was my first making jam – strawberry – though I only attempted freezer jam. This year I’m stepping it up and trying actually canning jams, though my first attempt (your strawberry rhubarb recipe) didn’t set as it should have, so we call it “sauce” and it’s delish! I’m trying the strawberry vanilla next and can’t wait!
I’d love this bread machine for both jam and bread! I’ve only canned jelly so far (strawberry and grape), and will read about what the difference between jam and jelly is!
My memories of making jam began 25 years ago. I went into the fields, picked several quarts of strawberries, and then came home to make a very delicious, sweet jam. I’ve been making it ever since.
I remember my grandmother doing a lot of canning when I was little (these memories consist of heat and sweet spoons), but it wasn’t something my family carried on. I put in my own garden this year and hope to try grape jelly.
I’ve never made jam but I do have great memories of making nectarine and apple butter from our trees when I was younger. Every year I vow to make some myself and every year the fall gets away from me too quickly.
Years ago, I lived in Portland, Oregon and drove by the strawberry fields on my way home every day and every day I bought a flat of strawberries (I could not resist the scent of strawberries as I drove past the fields), ate as many as I could before I got home and made strawberry jam every afternoon. Needless to say that all my family and friends received jam for Christmas!
Last time I tried I had hot jam popping out of the pot and onto my skin!
I have been making microwaved marmalade. I love the small batches it makes. And it’s my birthday tomorrow. The Zojirushi bread/jam maker will look nice on my counter with her cousin – the awesome Zojirushi Rice Cooker.
Awesome. I loved seeing this post. I once tried making jam in my old Sunbeam bread machine, and it has gone down in history as being the biggest disaster in my kitchen that ever involved either jam or a bread machine. The jam being cooked splattered so wildly that there are still bits of it stuck to the inside of the machine, three years and much scrubbing later. I once vowed to never venture anywhere near the jam-making button ever again. I’m glad to see you fared better with the Zojirushi, despite the imperfect jam product.
My mother was a busy jam maker when i was young. Mostly strawberry as we grew so many in the garden. I remember helping with the whole process and especially the taste of hot jam on the wooden spoon. Delicious.
The Oregon Hood strawberries are in and I’m going picking this week! We wait all year for these tiny, sweet berries. The rhubarb is going nuts as well, so I’m excited to start the summer jams!
I think my favorite jam was making a mixed wild berry jam at the end of vacation in Maine. Some raspberries, some blueberries, and a few others. We picked them all and it was delicious.
About a week and a half ago I went home from the farm that I work at with 4 quarts of strawberries to make jam with. The power had gone out due to a large storm that had just passed through, so that night I hulled 4 quarts of strawberries by candlelight. It was lovely!
I have no story of jam making, since I have yet to tackle this but as soon as it’s no a million degrees out I plan to! Having gone gf I make most everything from scratch now. I tackled bread, calzones, buttermilk biscuits, pizza, yogurt, and all my own sauces too so I am pretty sure I can manage jam. Mostly.
I made jam for the first time last week–rhubarb, fresh from the garden. I was surprised at how much noise it made when the whole jars were boiling!
I’ve actually never made jam, but would love to give it a go! Thanks for your lovely post!
Jam reminds me of being pregnant and hot and picking strawberries. Next time I’m buyin them prepacked.