Preserving: How To Make Homemade Preserves

Three pots of damson jam and a slice of sourdough with jam

When to make preserves

Of all the types of preserving, one of the most popular is making jams, jellies and marmalades of seasonal fruit. Plan your year and make a few jars of lots of different things to discover what you really love.

Start in early spring with forced rhubarb paired with stem ginger and orange. In June, pop a couple of handfuls of fresh elderflower into a muslin bag to add to sharp gooseberry jam. Each summer there’s a profusion of soft fruits just waiting to be preserved – raspberries, strawberries and blackcurrants for classic jams, or redcurrants for vibrant jelly.

English plums, greengages and damsons make great early autumn preserves. Pick wild crabapples and rowan berries for jellies to accompany roast meats. Make jelly from new-season Bramley apples, then add any of your favourite chopped herbs to capture their vibrancy. If you want to truly start your jam from scratch, check out our autumn foraging guide for tips on picking blackberries, elderberries, sloes and more from hedgerows and parks.

Close the year and start the new one with a selection of citrus fruits to make tangy marmalade. Include the classic ‘in-season’ bitter Seville oranges from Spain.

A glass jar of deep purple jam with a pot and a spoon, with two slices of toast covered in jam on a ceramic plate

What equipment to use for preserving

Use a heavy-based stainless steel preserving pan with a top wider than its base if possible, to help the evaporation process. A 10-litre pan should be big enough for your needs. It should only be half full after the sugar is added, to allow for a rolling boil without boiling over.

You will also need the following preserving equipment: a heatproof bowl, plate, sieve, jug, funnel, wooden spoon, slotted spoon, sugar thermometer, new jars and some matching lids and labels.

How to sterilise jars for preserving

To sterilise jars quickly, wash them in hot soapy water, rinse and put in a oven heated at 160C/fan 140C/gas 3 for 10 minutes. This ensures they are clean and hot just as you are ready to start filling. Alternatively, put the washed and rinsed jars in a low 50C oven while you make the jam.

Techniques and top tips for preserving

• Fruit should be dry, fresh and slightly under-ripe (to ensure sufficient natural pectin).

• There’s no need to add pectin – just generous quantities of fruit and a little fresh lemon juice or grated sour apple according to your recipe.

• Try golden granulated cane sugar instead of white sugar from sugar beet. It is less sweet and imparts a subtle hint of molasses to the jam.

• Stir sugar on a low heat until it is thoroughly dissolved, then turn up the temperature to achieve a rolling boil.

• Check regularly for the setting point, lifting the pan off the heat each time. Use a sugar thermometer to test for set.

• When the jam is ready, pour into a heatproof container to prevent further cooking and spoiling. Remove any ‘scum’ with a slotted spoon before jarring, as it looks unsightly.

• Leave preserves containing pieces of fruit, peel or herbs for about 10 minutes to distribute evenly before jarring.

• Jar and lid while hot.

• Always use new jars and metal lids rather than cellophane tops in order to create a vacuum to help preservation.

• Label with the preserve’s type and date.

Techniques and tips for pickling

Guru Freddie Janssen gives his tips for making perfect pickles.

People tend to be intimidated by pickling and fermenting as they think there are lots of rules and percentages you need to know about. Trust me, you don’t! You also don’t need to spend hours hunting out impossible-to-find specialist equipment because you’ll probably have pretty much everything you need somewhere in your kitchen cupboard.The majority of the recipes in my book, Pickled, are refrigerator pickles. These are made by soaking (mostly) raw, fresh ingredients in a vinegar-based brine with sugar and salt, and flavoured with spices and herbs.

Now for the science bit; the salt pulls out the moisture, meaning that bacteria stands no chance of developing and the acidity in the vinegar helps to preserve the natural crunch of your fruit and vegetables by stopping bacteria growing. Because the pickles aren’t cooked or fermented, it’s quick and leaves them delightfully crunchy, for instance classic dill cucumber pickles or rosemary pickled plums, but also more unusual ones like pickled watermelon and pickled nashi pear.

The awesome thing about pickling and fermenting is how humble ingredients (vinegar, salt, sugar, fresh produce) are transformed into something extraordinary. You just combine the ingredients then wait – either a couple of hours or a few months – for the magic to happen in the jar.

Fresh produce
Buy the freshest, most seasonal produce you can. There’s no point preserving a vegetable that’s lost its crunch and freshness.

Garlic
Garlic in brine can turn bright blue – don’t worry! It might look like a scary chemical reaction but it just means that the garlic is old. It won’t harm the pickle.

Salt
Use kosher, sea or pickling salt rather than normal table salt, which contains caking agents such as iodine, which can cloud the brines and inhibit the growth of beneficial bacteria during fermentation.

Spices
Avoid buying ready-made pickling bags. It’s far more interesting to experiment and add your own spices. Yellow mustard, coriander and fennel seeds are a good place to start, but try things like szechuan peppercorns with pickled watermelon, kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass with shallots, or chipotle chillies with eggs.

Vinegar
I use apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, and my personal favourite, rice wine vinegar. Rice wine vinegar has a lower acetic acid content, and is sweeter and milder in flavour. You can also add flavour to your vinegar or brine by adding things like elderflower, shiso, liquorice or pineapple weed – don’t be afraid to experiment!