Young novice culinary hostesses, at the first experience of cooking jam, always face the problem of the appearance of culinary foam on the surface of the product. Accordingly, questions arise: is it necessary, why and why to remove the foam from the jam? Let's look at the need for this action.

What is cooking foam

During heat treatment (boiling, boiling) of a liquid medium, foam is formed on its surface, which is characterized as culinary. It can consist of such substances, which are often mixed:

• dirt or specks (sugar and products from which the dish is prepared are not perfectly clean);
• protein fractions subject to rapid souring;
• extractives and esters of products.

Why remove foam from jam

The extraction of foam from the surface of a sweet treat is not only hygienic, but also preventive. If you remove the foam from the surface of the jam, it will acquire the following properties:

• the ingredients are better boiled without being digested at the same time;
• the syrup will have a transparent structure;
• jam will have a pronounced, not changing over time, berry aroma and a stable taste;
• a longer shelf life is provided for it (foam is garbage and oxygen bubbles that contribute to the acidification of the product).

When to remove foam from jam

Remove the foam during the entire process of cooking jam. The very first time this needs to be done is when preparing pure syrup. The amount of foam formed during further preparation depends on its quality. Further, they remove it already when cooking the dessert, when the foam thickens and turns white (this happens in the process of cooling the jam). It will be much easier to remove as it becomes denser. If this is not done, you will find unpleasant whitish lumps in the jam, obviously spoiling the aesthetic appearance and quality of the dessert.

If you, despite all the arguments about the uselessness of the foam, still want to use it in some way, try making pastries or unusual dishes from it. For a sweet cocktail, mix foam with kefir, milk or yogurt. A delicious dessert will turn out if you add foam to cottage cheese or any milk porridge.

What will happen if the foam is not removed from the jam, it will turn sour and will not be stored, or the foam is removed to make strawberry and cherry jam beautiful? Why remove the foam from the jam?

Anastasia asks

Miracle Chef answers

To understand why you need to remove the foam from the jam when it is boiled, you need to figure out what the foam that forms on the surface of the jam during cooking consists of, why it is so important to collect it and you don’t need to eat the removed sweet foams, as many do.

The tradition of making homemade jam in many families was passed down from grandmothers, the grandmother's recipe seemed the most delicious, transparent, thick, it was stored all winter and retained transparency, and did not change its taste.

Since childhood, in the memory of many of us, an unforgettable rich aroma has been deposited, filling the whole house, when she made the children take out the bones for.

Homemade jam cooked with foam, as a rule, loses in color and taste, if you do not remove the foam or collect it only partially. This is especially true for jams such as:

The foam left in the jam will noticeably change the taste and color of the homemade preparation for the worse. Jam without foam will last longer in winter, mold will not begin to form in jars of jam, it is less likely that it will ferment, so the foam must be removed during cooking.

Often, when cooking homemade berry, fruit jam, the housewives themselves eat the removed sweet foam and give it to children to feast on, not knowing about the composition of the collected foam.

The composition of the removed sweet "delicacy" includes garbage from dirty sugar during cooking and the dirt remaining in poorly washed ones after their processing and preparation before making jam.

Judging by the discussions on the Miracle Cook website written for, and cooking, many housewives do not remove foam during cooking due to lack of time or do not know how to collect. I would like to immediately answer the question of how to remove the foam from the jam, and give advice on how to collect the foam better and better:

1. Tip 1. When cooking jam, if possible, of course, it is better to remove all the foam, it is undesirable to leave it. If it is problematic to collect foam without residue from the surface of berry jam, you can remove it in several steps. , turn off the stove, the pan can be left on the stove, remove some of the foam and put it back on the boil. Repeat the procedure several times until all the foam is removed from the jam.
2. Tip 2. The removed foam cleans the jam from microorganisms found in sugar, poorly washed berries.

Remember: foam can create a favorable environment for the reproduction of harmful bacteria in sealed jars of jam for the winter. Without foam, jam is cleared of debris faster, boils more evenly, it turns out tastier, it is stored longer, it does not turn sour, but if the foam is not completely removed, the jam may become slightly sugary. Now you know why to remove the foam from the jam.

It is important to cook cherry jam correctly so that it is not too liquid, but also does not lose vitamins during cooking. I offer a recipe that has been used in our family for many years.

We wash the berries. Then dry! Remove the seeds from the washed berries.

Sprinkle cherries with sugar. The amount of sugar depends on the degree of acidity of the cherry (variety), as well as on where the future jam will be stored. Approximately it is 1:1. If more, then the cherry jam will be too sweet, and we don’t really like it (you won’t eat much).

We are waiting for the cherries to give juice. We do not add water! After that, gently mix and put on a slow fire until boiling. As foam forms, remove it. Why is it necessary to remove the foam from the jam and is it necessary to do it? It is necessary to remove the foam, otherwise the jam will not be well stored and will turn sour due to the fact that tartaric acid is collected in the foam (and not dirt and microbes, if we washed the berries well). To facilitate the tedious process of "foaming", you can put the saucepan in such a way that it protrudes slightly on one side of the edge of the burner. Then the foam will gather from this edge and it will be more convenient to remove it.

Gently stir the jam from the bottom up so as not to damage the berries and so that the temperature throughout the thickness of the jam is uniform. 4-5 minutes after the start of a slow boil, remove the pan from the heat. Now let's wait 6 hours for the berries to soak in the syrup and start heating again until boiling. And let it sit again for a few hours.

Repeat this procedure 4-5 times until the jam is cooked.

We sterilize the jars (in the oven for 5-15 minutes, depending on the volume).

Pour warm jam into jars (not hot, otherwise the lids will sweat and the jam may turn sour in the future).

Bon appetit!
L.I. Koroleva-Muntz

• Cook "until cooked" - how much? When, during the final cooking, the jam begins to boil, and there is no more foam, then it is ready.
• Why is it better not to stir the jam? In order not to damage the integrity of berries or fruits. To mix, just shake the jam in a bowl in a circular motion.
• How to remove the foam? At the moment of shaking the jam, the foam collects in the center of the dish - this is the best moment to collect it with a spoon or slotted spoon.

Why cook in several stages

It's no secret that the most beautiful jam is obtained if it is boiled in several steps. With this method, the syrup penetrates into the pulp of the fruit. The strength of the syrup in which fruits and berries are boiled increases gradually, and the syrup and fruits turn out to be transparent and beautiful. If fresh fruits and berries are boiled for a very long time in one go, then the water from the fruits will very quickly turn into syrup, they will wrinkle, and the appearance of the jam will deteriorate significantly. .

Other cooking methods

Cooking in syrup

Sometimes cooking jam begins with the preparation of syrup. Syrup can be of various strengths - depending on the type of fruit and the method of cooking jam. The prepared syrup is combined with fruits, boiled, and sometimes the fruits are infused in syrup. And so several times.

Single brew

First, fruits are covered with half the amount of sugar and left overnight. Then the resulting juice is drained, the remaining sugar is added to it and the syrup is boiled until it becomes transparent. Then the berries are put into the syrup and boiled until tender.

Little tricks

• Jam is always cooked over low heat - violent boiling is unacceptable!
• The foam from the jam must be constantly removed.
• You can cook fruits not only in sugar, but also on honey - it should be taken in the same ratio as sugar. And you can use sugar and honey in half.
• In the finished jam, berries and fruits do not float to the top, but are evenly distributed in the syrup and become transparent.

How to save candied jam

During storage, the jam can become sugary - the berries become, as it were, sprinkled with sugar grains. This is a sure sign that the jam has been overcooked. To save candied jam, pour water into it (1 tablespoon per 0.5 l jar), put the jar of jam in a saucepan with cold water (the level of water and jam should be the same) and bring the water to a boil. Then, without removing the jars, remove the pan from the stove, let the water cool, and only then remove the jar.

After this procedure, the sugar grains will melt and the syrup will become transparent again. And so that next time the jam does not become sugary, shortly before the end of cooking, you can add ½ teaspoon of citric acid to each kilogram of sugar.