Sugary jam

[Wasatch Rebel]

Is it okay to eat jam that has "gone sugary" as my mama used to say? If you don't know what I mean, if you leave an opened jar of jam in the fridge for too long without eating it, sugar crystals begin to form and it begins to go white or lighten because of the sugar. Is it okay to eat in this state?

[phylm]

Is it okay to eat jam that has "gone sugary" as my mama used to say? If you don't know what I mean, if you leave an opened jar of jam in the fridge for too long without eating it, sugar crystals begin to form and it begins to go white or lighten because of the sugar. Is it okay to eat in this state?

If it doesn't taste spoiled, there's nothing wrong. I know that this will shock a lot of you, but if you find some mold on top of your waxed jam, you can scrape it off, and the rest is perfectly fine. Been doing it since I saw my grandmother do it back in the '30s :001_cool:

[Noahs ARK]

If it doesn't taste spoiled, there's nothing wrong. I know that this will shock a lot of you, but if you find some mold on top of your waxed jam, you can scrape it off, and the rest is perfectly fine. Been doing it since I saw my grandmother do it back in the '30s :001_cool:

Ditto. And if you're worried about the jam, you can always put it in a pan, bring it to a boil and then put it back in the jar (after properly washed).

My grandma told me to just scrape off the mold, so that's what I do.

[4evermama]

I was taught "there's always mold on something. you just have to work around it".

[iggy]

Is it okay to eat jam that has "gone sugary" as my mama used to say? If you don't know what I mean, if you leave an opened jar of jam in the fridge for too long without eating it, sugar crystals begin to form and it begins to go white or lighten because of the sugar. Is it okay to eat in this state?
Boy Howdy this is an old thread ~ Back when I was just a young girl [1960, age 8] and helping Mom and Grandma 'put up' [when they canned anything, they said they were 'putting up' insert fruit, vegetable, pie filling of choice] but in this case it was jam, they waited until the jam was cool, then poured melted paraffin on top, before that had a chance to really cool, it was my job to put the seal and ring on and Grandma made sure the ring was 'snug' NOT tight. When the seal set, that is when we labeled the jars and took them to the dirt cellar under the house.

Sometimes jars of food got left in the cellar for years - and if the mold was just on the very top, it was carefully scraped off, the inside of the jar wiped clean with a clean, wet with bleach water dish rag. The wax, seal & ring was washed in soapy dish water, rinsed in HOT water and the wax put in the used wax container [empty #10 can of powdered milk that Mom painted the outside to match her kitchen cupboard doors] to be melted down with it's brothers and sisters when the next batch of jam was made.

We never refrigerated the jam - it never lasted for very long as jam on bread was our after meal dessert! BUT if a jar went surgery, Dad checked to make sure it wasn't also moldy [he had the best eyesight & nose for odors], then the jar was emptied into a sauce pan, brought to a boil and boiled until it reached the jelly mark on the thermometer. Only then was it put back into the clean and sterilized jar, covered with the sterilized seal and ring, and put back into the 'Butter' cupboard.

Butter Cupboard This was a small [for us it was small] cupboard over the small counter- cupboard w/drawer and shelves underneath. In this over cupboard were two shelves: Top shelf was the everyday plastic glasses & coffee cups. Bottom shelf was the covered butter dish w/ real butter, covered margarine dish [this one was a plastic dish that is how we told them apart], the jam & peanut butter, 2 sugar bowls, three sets of salt & pepper shakers and three paper napkin holders.

The lower counter unit was for cutting the homemade bread [each child was expected to cut slices from a loaf when they were about 8 yo. If they weren't tall enough, they they stood on the stool that they used when washing dishes] ,and preparing sandwiches. The drawer was where the flatware was AND the bread knife. The lower shelf's held all of Mom's bread pans. These were 1 1/2 times larger than the loaf pans being sold nowadays. There were 21 pans plus her three roll pans. To us roll's were everyone else's dinner rolls but again 1 1/2 bigger. Our stove/range was from a restaurant that went bankrupt.

Also our Bread Box was home made by Dad, was on wheels so that it could be wheeled under the kitchen table out of the way. Had a hinged lid and two kids could sit on it to eat breakfast at the table. Granted there was more than enough room behind them to sit two additional kids, but they wouldn't have any table or even a counter to eat off of.

Mom made 17 loaves of white bread & one huge pan of Dinner Rolls -30 count - each week on Mondays, and to keep us kids out of the kitchen when we came home from school, she made skillet bread. So we had hot skillet bread, with butter and cinnamon sugar that we ate at the dinner table. Oh how I loved Mondays after school! Those loaves were put into heavy plastic bags and stored in that *bread box*. As each loaf was finished it's bagged was washed, rinsed extremely well they put on the three rod hanger to dry, then placed in the flour bin [home made, lined with tin, roll out from under the counter bin that held the 100 pound cloth bag of flour and all the other flours used to make all the other breads.]