Jam too sweet

[w33blegurl]

I made raspberry jam yesterday with the last of our frozen rasps. Its quite nice but I muist admit I find it too sweet! I know that you need a certain amount of sugar to preserve the fruit and I had been going with a recipe that said 1lb fruit to 1lb sugar, but it is OK to put less sugar in? If so how much less. Also can you use those "light" sugars when making jam or will it turn out rubbish?

Thanks!

[vicky]

I've used more lemon juice in the past to make jams less sweet, you need a certain amount of sugar to preserve so don't reduce it too much

[smallblueplanet]

We normally make our raspberry jam/conserve with about 700g to 1kg of fruit, can't stand jam too sweet. We keep it in the fridge after opening, never had any problems.

[Nicos]

I mmade black cherry jam last year as we had tons of them!!!!

I reduced the amount of sugar- and it was so sweet you couldn't even tastethe fruit!!!

Lemon juice next time - from what peeps have said- but even so, I was laughed at for trying it with sweet cherries.
Ah well- a learning curve...I'll try a few pots again this year- and then give up!

[Hilary B]

You can use less sugar, you need to boil it longer to 'set', and you end up with less jam. Only tried it once, but I sometimes (when I find a shop that sells it) buy 'fruit spread' (I think they can't call it jam) which has NO added sugar, and keeps just as well as any other jam. That has concentrated apple or pear juice instead of the sugar.
There is sugar in the fruit, and if you boil it long enough you can get the same sugar percentage without actually adding any (and that, along with the pectin, is what makes it set).
Lemon juice is the alternative version. It not only counteracts the sweetness, it also improves setting quality!