Has anyone used Agar for the jelling agent? My son wants me to try it, you can gel almost anything and can be bought at Oriental groceries stores.

I'm not familiar with Pomona, but have lots about it on this forum. I don't do much with the lower sugar (not allowed to sell diabetic at my market) and do very well with the pectin that i get at nuts.com.

On the site you mention, they give a jam recipe with 3.5 cups fruit, and 5.5 cups of sugar. i just cannot eat jam with that much sugar.Taste of the fruit is completely lost IMHO. I would use one cup sugar with Pomona. I guess I'm sold on the product! Even 2 cups of sugar wold be OK. But no more than that. The fruit, any fruit has loads of sugar already.

But I know one can use less sugar and fruit pectin and still get it to fix. So appreciate the site, that pectin is super cheap! In general I use 1 cup of sugar with 2 cups of fruit. I have made that work, but you need to boil for a bit. And it can fail, but works well with high acid fruits. All that sugar is just so bad for you. I can't justify making jam or jelly that is that bad for you. If it doesn't work, I'll use it as syrup. I guess why I like Pomona. i don't have to worry about failure with the low sugar, it works everytime no matter what.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Wed, Oct 30, 13 at 16:43

The only issues with Pomona are the mouthfeel is different and a preserve will lack the clarity. For some neither of those would be an issue. For others it is. Obviously the problem with cloudiness would be more significant with a jelly.

Some "super-tasters" do discern the taste of the calcium and dislike it.

Any low-sugar preserve will have a reduced life compared to a full-sugar preserve. Canning in smaller jars and not canning these products in a two-year cycle can alleviate these issues.

Carol

Not all recipes have that much sugar to fruit, just some. I've found that I can adjust a little bit, but it is just a bit.

You might want to consider Pacific Pectin LM-3 for low sugar jams. I use it exclusively now that I have invested in the smallest package they offer - 10# for $73.00. Well worth the investment for me, however, if you don't make as much jam as much as I do (1500 jars last year) then the two year shelf life might be an issue?
Nancy

Here is a link that might be useful: Pacific Pectin

I wondered why my quince jelly was cloudy, OK, well next time it's pectin, but I have to try low sugar, because 4 cups to 1 cup sugar was too sweet for the quince I used. It hardly tastes like anything.
I would rather taste the calcium then all that sugar. Which for sure ruins the taste.
Nancy thanks for the link, I don't make that much, but all the same a low sugar pectin sounds good!
Myfamilyfarm, thanks too for the input. It certainly is not your fault so much sugar is needed. It does work for really tart fruit like Cornelian cherries. (Cornus Mas-dogwood cherries). And currants are quite tart too! I don't mind the sugar there. But for say strawberries, you should taste the low sugar stuff, it's excellent. I grow pineberries, which are white strawberries with red seeds. So color is important too, pectin would be better, but not the sugar. looks like 10 pounds of Pacific LM-O is in my future...
And some regular pectin too from nuts dot com, Pomona does have it's place though!
Thanks all so much for the info!!

I use the nuts.com pectin, but not their recipes. I use the Ball Pectin calculator, it's really handy, but doesn't have everything that I make. I usually used the reduced sugar, versus the low sugar. The reduced sugar has less sugar but still works for regular pectin.

I've seriously thought about the Pacific Pectin, but found that comparing the regular pectin, Pacific was much higher than nuts.com. Nuts don't have low-sugar pectin or Liquid. Pacific has both, I don't use alot of low-sugar or liquid, just enough to MAYBE buy in bulk.

Marla

I tried the Pomona several different times but just didn't care for the consistency, the set, or the mouth feel. We much prefer using Ball's Lo-No Sugar pectin as it lets you use however much or little sugar you wish.

Dave

I have noticed that the Ball pectin is a light tan/brown color and what I've got from nuts.com is white. It doesn't make a difference to the jelly/jam, but Ball is easier to see when you mix with sugar.

Has anyone tried the liquid pectin that you prepare from powder to liquid at home?

Marla

You don't even need to add pectin with quince jelly - just use about 3/4Csugar to each 1C quince juice.

Drew, We like the Pomona here. I do notice the mouthfeel difference and I can taste the calcium, a bit, but my daughter is a juvenile diabetic so we are quite conscious of our carbohydrate intake and so will continue using it. But, I intend to buy a bulk package of it and share with some friends who make jams as well. I have made many of the jams with half sugar and half Splenda (never all Splenda because that I can taste and do not appreciate).

ETA: I do not have a long history of making jams so the difference in texture is probably not as distinguishable to my family as it might be if I had been making jams for years and years.

This post was edited by tishtoshnm on Thu, Oct 31, 13 at 21:42

I started with Pomona's, and so don't notice too much of the mouth feel. I love being able to make lower sugar jams for the squirts to eat, and now having tried some traditional cooked no-pectin ones, they're much too sweet for us!!

Also love Pomona's for the fact that I can make up my own recipes and feel confident that results will be good. This years' batches were very soft set and more pleasing than some of last year that were a bit overset and gelly.

I've used Pomona's for years and love it. Both my husband and I are diabetic although his diabetes has almost disappeared recently. The first preserve I made with it was the Apple Pie Jam and my husband, who is very picky, really liked it. Enough to say it would be great to make apple hand pies from it. That was before anyone had made it with Pomona's, to my knowledge, so it was trial and error for me and turned out perfect. I pick up the individual boxes from Bloomingfoods in Bloomington, Indiana. Its about 20 miles from me so I pick up several when I go. I'll stick with it.

Madonna

Thanks all for the feedback. i guess we are all different! My wife won't touch any jam.jelly.reserve because of the consistancy. I did make her try Pomaona's, and still the same reaction. I did notice a difference myself. Pomona's seemed a lot smoother. Like apple butter. But if you have a good taste, the consistancy get's left behind. I made black and blue jam. Wild blackberries and blueberries with Pomona, and it's so good, consistancy doesn't matter.
I know some fruits you do not need pectin, Quince being one, but I used Pomona pectin because 3/4 sugar to 1 cup of fruit is way too much for me. I use 1/2 sugar to 1 cup fruit and it still tasted like too much sugar. The fruit taste was masked behind the sweetness. I made jelly, and yeah I wanted a clear product. So for now no good answer for quince in sight.
With raspberries, I use lemon juice, and peel, core, and shred an apple into it and get a good set with .5 ratio of sugar to fruit. But this does not work for all fruits. I'll have to try it with quince.

Quince has more pectin than apple, so if you want a low-sugar quince jelly I think the only options are Pomona or Ball No sugar.

Yeah the Ball Low sugar sounds good, thanks all for the tips! With Pomona, jelly is not clear, so I need the no sugar pectin.

Ball No Sugar gives a pretty clear jelly IMO. Go easy on it though, esp. with quince - using 3T to 1 quart of apple juice gave my DD a Red Hot Candy jelly that was setting up as soon as I took the pan off the burner! Try maybe 1T.

I found that the liquid pectin gives a clearer jelly than any powder pectin. I only use liquid in the light colored fruits.

I don't think anybody makes a low-sugar liquid pectin, do they? And liquid pectin is so iffy anyway...

We use Pomona - one advantage is that you can make up large batches of jelly - we often do 15-ish pint runs of wild plum jelly at a go.

Just make sure all the pectin is dissolved before you add the calcium and what ever sugar you want.

I haven't found low-sugar liquid, but haven't found it to be 'iffy' as long as it's not expired. It's expiration date is right on, 1 month over, forget it.

My low-sugar pectin (Dutch Jell Lite) isn't a 2 part pectin, and the measurement is close to regular pectin, but I have to pay over $7 per pound, versus the less than $3 per pound for regular. I don't mess around with boxes anymore. I've already got 25 pounds of regular pectin ready for this coming year, plus I have 2 years to use it.

Thinking about gummy worms with some of the pectin, plus some of the juice that I've canned up this year. I have 5 'guinea pigs' to test taste. Candies are also approved to sell at my markets.

Marla