My wife and I made a batch of hot pepper jam yesterday and a strange thing
happened. After taking them out of the waterbath and letting them sit
overnight, they were still VERY runny. I know, things can take up to 2
weeks to set. But the strange thing is we put about 2 tablespoons full of
the jam in a small bowl (it was what was left after filling the jars) and
didn't BWB process it. Before the BWB was done, this stuff set up
beautifully. So why didn't the BWB processed jars set up when cooled? Any
ideas?

PS I have all but 2 jars in the fridge as an experiment. They seem to be
setting up some but not fully. The two jars left out are still runny.

"ScubaPix" > wrote in message
. 102...
> My wife and I made a batch of hot pepper jam yesterday and a strange thing
> happened. After taking them out of the waterbath and letting them sit
> overnight, they were still VERY runny. I know, things can take up to 2
> weeks to set. But the strange thing is we put about 2 tablespoons full of
> the jam in a small bowl (it was what was left after filling the jars) and
> didn't BWB process it. Before the BWB was done, this stuff set up
> beautifully. So why didn't the BWB processed jars set up when cooled? Any
> ideas?
>
> PS I have all but 2 jars in the fridge as an experiment. They seem to be
> setting up some but not fully. The two jars left out are still runny.

I had this happen the last time I attempted to make hot pepper jelly....I
ended up dumping it back into the pan and adding yet another sure jell to
it......one just didn't seem to do the trick. Entered it in the
fair....won a ribbon.
-ginny
fair ribbon whore

"Virginia Tadrzynski" > wrote in message
...
>
> "ScubaPix" > wrote in message
> . 102...
> > My wife and I made a batch of hot pepper jam yesterday and a strange
thing
> > happened. After taking them out of the waterbath and letting them sit
> > overnight, they were still VERY runny. I know, things can take up to 2
> > weeks to set. But the strange thing is we put about 2 tablespoons full
of
> > the jam in a small bowl (it was what was left after filling the jars)
and
> > didn't BWB process it. Before the BWB was done, this stuff set up
> > beautifully. So why didn't the BWB processed jars set up when cooled?
Any
> > ideas?
> >
> > PS I have all but 2 jars in the fridge as an experiment. They seem to be
> > setting up some but not fully. The two jars left out are still runny.
>
> I had this happen the last time I attempted to make hot pepper jelly....I
> ended up dumping it back into the pan and adding yet another sure jell to
> it......one just didn't seem to do the trick. Entered it in the
> fair....won a ribbon.

I suspect hot peppers have very little to no natural pectin, the recipies
in the pectin packages seem to be written for berry-based jams, berries
have a lot of pectin in them already.

Ted

On Jul 29, 2:13 pm, ScubaPix > wrote:
> My wife and I made a batch of hot pepper jam yesterday and a strange thing
> happened. After taking them out of the waterbath and letting them sit
> overnight, they were still VERY runny. I know, things can take up to 2
> weeks to set. But the strange thing is we put about 2 tablespoons full of
> the jam in a small bowl (it was what was left after filling the jars) and
> didn't BWB process it. Before the BWB was done, this stuff set up
> beautifully. So why didn't the BWB processed jars set up when cooled? Any
> ideas?
>
> PS I have all but 2 jars in the fridge as an experiment. They seem to be
> setting up some but not fully. The two jars left out are still runny.

I had that happen on year. I never got around to reboiling them and
thought I would just use them for bar-b-q glaze. Come 6 months later
I go to pull some out and do just that, and the dog gone things had
set up so hard it was almost like a thick candy. Go figure.
Vicky