What is Pectin? Pectin is a natural gelling agent that occurs in fruit. It helps your jams, marmalades and jellies set. Some fruits have high levels of it while others have much lower levels.
How much pectin is in the fruit depends on what fruit you are using and how ripe it is. This greatly affects the solidity of your jam and jelly preserves.
You can buy commercially produced pectin to add to the fruit is that are low in it naturally.
How to Make Jam Without Adding Anything
If you don’t want to add it when you are making jam or jelly you can always use fruits that don’t need it. As a general guide the firmer the fruit the less pectin you need.
An alternative would be to combine your fruits so that some of your ingredients have a high levelled pectin fruit content.
Which Fruits Are High in Pectin?
Fruits High in Pectin Naturally
Gooseberries, damsons guavas, crab apples, quince, apples, pears, plums, and oranges and other citrus fruits usually have large amounts.
Fruits Low in Pectin
The softer fruits like strawberries, loganberries, melons, blueberries,blackberries, raspberries, figs, peaches and apricots and cherries or grapes etc. have much smaller amounts of it naturally.
All the fruits under the low section need to have it added when making jams or jelly.
Where Can I Buy Pectin?
When I started you couldn’t really get anything pectin-related at the supermarkets, maybe if you were lucky you could get sugar with it in. Now they do a very limited range. Sainsbury’s does a fruit pectin and Asda does a sugar one with it added and Silverspoon have a new product as well. (note: make sure you get a jam making one, there seems to be a health related one that you drink as well).
250 g of Special Ingredients and Premium Quality Pectin Powder
If you have a local specialist shop near you, you may be able to get some there.
Failing that there’s always on-line. Amazon has a good range.
Remember though that you don’t always need it as it depends on the fruit.
Top Reasons to Use Pectin Powder
- It sets in only one minute – yay!!!
- You only need a small amount
- This works out as quite economical
- You are using only soft fruit in your jam
- You don’t want to, haven’t got the time to make your own
- It is much easier to use
- It takes the guesswork out of the equation
- It makes for better more consistent results
