Earlier discussion in the fruit group on jam making left me exhausted.

@MPaola

Right. I sterilize them with boiling water immediately prior to using them anyway, and of course I use a preserving agent too...

@EvilCartyen that's what I do too but I am told that when drying they might catch some odd spores and bacteria. What do you mean by preserving agent?!?

@MPaola

In my case E-211, natriumbenzoate. It's an antibacterial, antifunghal agent which is naturally present in many berries as well. I sometimes store my jams for years and without it they'd start fermenting.

I also ferment stuff, in which case I don't use any preserving agents at all, but I like my cider alcoholic and my jams non-alcoholic

@EvilCartyen interesting. I only use a squirt of lemon juice and sugar, sometimes a glug of rum, but my berries' jams have never fermented, even when forgotten in the cupboard for a few years . Berries in an open jar, sure, and I have made vinegar when it happened. I wonder if the lemon juice is what stops them then.

@MPaola

Keeping the acidity low is definitely another option, as is using more sugar. If you go pound for pound, supposedly it will keep better, but I like my jams less sweet than that. Who knows, maybe I will try to not add any sodiumbenzoate for the next batch and see what happens.

I make vinegar too, but from apple cider and not berries. Occasionally from a fruit wine I didn't really like.

@EvilCartyen pound for pound would be too much for me, we don't like it too sweet either, I generally do half sugar to fruit. It's still quite sweet. In the last couple of years I've trusted myself less and less with preserving, though. We'll see if I'll hold on to this year's jam. I do still trust the jars I made before coming here, that was 7 years ago, are safe.

@MPaola I also stick to half sugar to fruit, I find that it's plenty sweet for my taste. Why the sudden loss in confidence with preserving?

I don't spend much time on other preserves than jam, but we do use a loooot of jam. It's easy to whip up a crostata di marmellata if you have it on hand, then you're ready for guests with a fresh cake in 40 minutes...

@EvilCartyen funny that you say that, crostata is also what I use it for, almost exclusively! I do make liqueurs or keep fruit in alcohol too. I guess the loss of confidence is due to a mix of factors, possibly related with not finding a job and hence losing confidence in general: I can't be sure my head is all there when making the jam. Another reason is that being surrounded these days by so many arrogantly confident people arguing for the whackiest of ideas makes me doubt myself more

@MPaola

Hey, doing preserves and fermenting stuff and growing food is a lot cooler than any job you could have

I mean, for my grandmother it WAS a job (although unpaid) right alongside my grandfather's farming. I have complete confidence in your skills, please share recipes and experiments with us!

I don't know what to do about the wackoes, though. I personally deleted all accounts on mainstream media to avoid being annoyed all the time.

@EvilCartyen oi, young man, are you calling me a granma?!? while no longer technically young, I'm not that old either!
I know what you mean, I wish it was enough for me but unfortunately it isn't... I am an aging serial migrant, one has to build up a pension before one's body fails entirely to perform! Besides, I've had a couple of cool jobs in the past, like sole kitchen gardener on an organic estate, head of comms for an agroecology conference and head of membership for BGCI