In a jam – again.

I really don’t cook. I’m terrible at it, with a total disinterest in food and all the things like it. But I do, it turns out, quite like making jam. I’ve made it before and enjoyed it so when Persil sent me a jam making kit, I thought I would try again.

It did however take me rather a long time to  get round to it; time disappeared and we never did make it to the pick your own, so the COMPLETELY ENORMOUS blackberries got bought on our Tesco trip 😆

I went for blackberry and apple this time because of the naturally occurring pectin in apples that saves buying special sugar or faffing with lemon juice and tricky setting points. I used FabFood4All’s recipe, a Tots100 blogger I hadn’t come across before – she was very friendly on Twitter.

My top tips for am making:-

• clean down everything first, make sure you have lots of space.
• dishwasher EVERYTHING – pots, ladle, spoon, slotted spoon, lids, easy pourer, saucepan for minimum germs that could get into the jam.
• Have a boiled kettle ready to reboil and use for sterilising the ladle if you drop it.
• Stick a saucer in the freezer for the crinkle test.
• Wear shoes.
• Use a much bigger pot than you think you’ll need. It really comes up and you don’t want to be hanging around boiling it slowly to stop it boiling over on to your toes. (See point above).

Love the colours. This was before the sugar, it goes all shiny once that’s in.

And it worked! (That was exactly the number of jars I had ready; impressed? I was!

Respect due for the setting perfection I think.

The purpose, aside from making yummy jam, was to try out a new Persil Dual Action Laundry Capsule, that funny thing that looks like a dingy at the front. The Persil Dual Action capsules are just coming to the end of the box here as we’ve been using them through the summer. Aside from the funky shape (I keep imagine them rafting merrily inside the drum), they do seem to be rather good. I wash on 30 degrees as a rule and often use quick or low water quantity and haven’t had any issues with cleanliness. We always do use Persil anyway, everything else causes hives on various people here. I love things that aren’t powder and go straight in the drum, they save a lot of mess. I’d quite like it if Max started getting these. Admittedly at £10 for 28 washes, it is a bit more expensive than powder (I’ve done some calculations and I think £29 for 100 washes in powder is 29p a wash, £10 for 28 is 36p a wash) but for convenience or perhaps for going away and using laundrettes or for heavier stains that benefit from the stain remover granules included in the centre., it could be worthwhile.

I used my muslin to wipe up and strain lots of the jam and then washed it on my normal 30 degree, half filled cycle – the result was perfect, all blackberry stains gone.

Disclosure: Persil sent us the jam kit and the tablets – views and hard labour are our own. Additional weight gain due to jam consumption sadly also our own.