Some adults remember the delicious aroma of boiling jam that grandmothers made in the summer in a copper bowl on the stove. It is associated with childhood, hot summer days and sweet foam stealthily stolen from a basin full of boiling berry jam. But why was it always cooked in copper basins and continues to be cooked today?
Benefits of copper
Copper basins have always been widely used at home, since copper has very good thermal conductivity. The jam cooked in a copper basin does not burn during the cooking process and warms up evenly throughout the entire volume of the container. Such thermal conductivity is observed only in silver dishes, but a copper basin is its cheaper counterpart, well suited for certain purposes.
Pots or pans made of aluminum, brass or stainless steel are equally good for making jam.
However, a copper basin has one unpleasant feature - when cooking jams in them, deposits of oxides can form on the surface of the container, therefore, copper dishes must be carefully looked after. Before and after cooking, the copper basin must be thoroughly washed and rinsed with hot water, and then dried until the moisture is completely removed. If oxide appears on its walls or bottom, wipe it well with sand, wash the container with hot soapy water, rinse, dry it and only then use it to make jam.
And besides, it is not so easy to find and buy this type of kitchen utensils made of copper or with a copper plated.
Rules for cooking jam in a copper basin
Fruits or berries for jam are placed in a copper basin, poured with boiling sugar syrup and left to infuse for 3-4 hours, during which the fruits are soaked in the sweet mass and saturated with sugar. As a result, the berries will not shrink during cooking and will retain their original shape.
In the process of cooking the jam, the fruit foam formed on its surface must be removed.
To get high-quality jam, you need to be able to correctly determine the end of its cooking. For this, there are certain signs that the delicacy is ready - so, at the end of cooking, the foam does not diverge along the edges, but collects in the center of the basin. Berries and fruits stop floating and are evenly distributed throughout the jam. When the syrup is sampled, its consistency is thick and stringy, and when cooled, it does not spread over the saucer. Well-cooked jam is characterized by berries that are translucent and completely saturated with syrup - while it should not be overcooked and caramelized.
To prevent the jam from sour berries and fruits from becoming sugared, you can add citric acid to it and not sterilize it, but immediately cork it into jars, turn them over and cool upside down. Also, high-quality cooked jam does not require additional pasteurization and sealed packaging.
