Mango Jam

Hi everyone,

Today I made my Mango Jam and Lilikoi Jelly.

I've been dreaming about it for days.

 I had tons of big beautiful mangos just waiting
to be made into preserves. 

I also like to add lilikoi juice to the mangos

for additional flavor.

Lilikoi has the most unique flavor.

It is bright, tangy, tropical, refreshing and

quite frankly amazing!

In Hawaii we pick them off the vine,

 bust them in half and suck em right down.

It is a taste of Hawaii.

To prepare for making jam is easy.

I just peel the Mangos, slice them and

place them into a bowl.

I aslo squeeze about ten lilikois and

the juice of three lemons.

I measure exact amounts of fruit to

put into my stainless steel pot.

Since I discovered the

wonderful product called Pomona Pectin

I use nearly half the sugar 

 it used to take to gel the jam or jelly.

I wanted to create low sugar products

for my diabetic patients and for my self and family.

I discovered Pomona pectin while doing a web search

on Mother Earth magazine.

I order it by phone and get the wholesale price.

The smaller package is the monocalcium Phosphate.

The calcium water is sort of a catalyst

that makes the pectin work perfectly.

The Citrus pectin is a gem.

It works perfectly every time.

The lady on the jamline guaranteed

that I could do batches up to 32 cups.

Normally, I was doing only 4-6 cups at a time

 so this was great news.

So here's what I did today.

I cut up my mangoes
and measured 6 cups of fruit into the pot.

I add 6 teaspoons of calcium water to the 6 cups of fruit.

(1 tsp. for every cup of fruit.)

The Pomona pectin is added to the bowl of sugar
on the side before I add it to the fruit.

This helps it disperse better.

(1 tsp. for every cup of fruit.)

The sugar can be 1/2 as much of the fruit.
I added 4 cups of sugar.

Normally it required bringing the fruit

to a rolling boil for 15 minutes.

With this Pomona pectin I only need

to bring it to a boil for 2 1/2 minutes.

If I boil it any longer I might undo the thickening process.

So I have to trust the formula and it works!

I have experimented with slightly less pectin powder

and calcium water with good results.

I do not like my jams and jelly too hard or too loose.

I want them Perfect!

The jars have been prewashed in the dishwasher

but can be done with soap and hot water and dried.

I used to boil my jars before use,

but realized that this was overzealous.

The lids and rings must be kept in hot water

brought to nearly a boil then turned off. 

 

After I ladle the jam into the jars,

I wipe each rim with paper towels

dipped into the boiled water.

Then I place the rubber sealed lid on and

screw on the rings finger tight.

This batch came out awesome!

Now the next step involves the deep water bath.

I place my jars into the canning pot and cover

with water at least two inches above all the jars.

It has to boil for at least five minutes.

It takes a while to bring this much water to a boil.

(about 15 minutes.)

Cover the pot to speed it up.

I boil for five minutes then turn off the heat.

At this point today, I left to take a walk in the park.

When I returned, I removed the jars

to place on a towel to set.

When cooled you must unscrew each ring

to check if the lid has a good seal.

Then dry each rim and ring and tighten again.

It seems tedious, but there is something

so Zen about making jam and jelly.

The act of repetition in the step by step process

and doing something

so old-fashioned really feels good.

So I hope you try it sometime.

I am creating a new video series

that will really show you how easy it is.

Next it's lilikoi jelly!