April 25, 2014 - 11:02pm
Blueberry jam fermented yeast culture?
I just found a jar of blueberry jam in the back of the fridge that smells wonderfully fermented, there looks to be a whitish/pale blue foam/slime stuff on it, I was wondering if/should I multiply the stuff, and how to do so?
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jam must have come from somewhere else -- jam is boiled for prolonged periods and its temperature reaches more than 100C because of all the sugar that's in there. I'd toss the jam. I think it likely that the whitish stuff is mold.
I have been reading alot about canning since this year we will be trying it for the first time. And I can say for sure from my reading that MisterTT is correct and the jam should be discarded jar and all unless you plan on sanitizing and sterilizing the jar.
We always pick wild berries in the summer such as blueberries, wild strawberries (it's hard to get more than a kilo at a time of these though), raspberries and grow some black currants and gooseberries all of which make great jams. And making them is not hard at all!
If you have access to lingonberries, they make the most wonderful jam to eat with savory foods, makes you forget cranberry sauce altogether.
If it still smells good, you might try turning it into a starter, as I did when one of my rose hip jams fermented, and made a wonderful Rose Hip Levain from it.
Home made jam, though cooked, can ferment, especially if it's made with less sugar, and no other preservatives. If you try it, the worst that can happen is that it doesn't work, and you don't get a lively starter. If not, you wasted a few cents for flour, that's all.
Rose Hip Levain, made from fermented jam.
Happy Baking,
Karin
Hi all
It's called Maine Caviar, a no-sugar-added "jam" that is just blueberries, white grape juice, and calcium. It smells like blueberry wine. I mixed it up and left it out to see if it gets going more. Not sure what to do yet, maybe freeze some to experiment with later, or put some in a bowl with water and sugar to see if I get a foam, or what.