Look What I Did!

Heck yeah, it is. That's just what you think it is - Mango Jam!! And not just Mango Jam - my first batch of jam I've ever made, Ever!

I'm so excited about it I don't even know where to start! Lol. But be forewarned - this is gonna be a much longer post than usual.

So - if you recall, there was some serious Mango Envy going on between me and the neighbor (Go Here for the post about that). Well, I sucked it up, went over, and offered to trade basil plants for mangoes. The woman (yes, I got her name even, ha ha!) was as nice as she could be, and I won't say she begged me to take as many mangoes as I wanted, but not far off. So I took a few and said I'd be back on the weekend.

And then one of my brilliant students suggested mango jam, I went back on Saturday (and ended up chatting for over 2 1/2 hours - they are super nice people!), and this is what I ended up coming back with.


Oh yeah. But that's because who knew how many mangoes it would take to make jam, you know? Apparently half of this pile will make two batches. But... more on that below.

Sunday dawned and mango jam fever was upon me! So I began assembling the necessary supplies:

Stock pot (the small one). Apparently I didn't need even something this big, but oh well. Dream big, right?

Washed jars

New lids and pectin


Sugar (sorry, no picture, but I think everyone knows what sugar looks like, right? lol)

And the fruit. Mangoes (of course), but if you notice there are a couple of green ones from one of the trees here. Unripe mangoes are supposed to have more pectin in them. And also some limes (from my tree, of course!). More on why limes below.

To read more about the process, click "Read More"



So enough mangoes were peeled, chopped, and mushed up a little in the blender to make 8 cups. Everything I read on the internet, as well as my mom, all said not to do huge batches, as it wouldn't set right. So... 8 cups of mushed up fruit. And it's cooked with the lime juice. Most jam making sites recommended lemons, but I didn't have lemons, for one. A couple of mango jelly recipes specifically mentioned limes, and I have those... hence the limes  :)

There it is cooking - the mango glop and lime juice has to come to a rolling boil. Once it does that, you add the sugar (I used 4 cups) and the pectin (I used a whole box). 

In the meantime, sterilize the jars, rings, and lids...


Then... it cooks. And cooks. Actually it only took about 20 minutes but you have to stir it almost constantly. Then when you spoon a little onto a frozen plate, let it cool a second, and turn the plate upside down... You know it's ready to be put in jars if nothing drips off the plate. If it drips - keep cooking. Easy, right?

So here's the first batch of jars

Here's the second batch cooking (see the smaller pot? Yeah, I wish I'd known that to begin with, ha ha!).Along with sterilizing the rest of the jars.

Which means that from two batches of 8 cups each of mango mush, there were ten jars worth of jam! Unfortunately, I only had nine jars... The rest is in a plastic container in the fridge - and man is it Gooood! 

However, as I still have half the mango pile left, hehe... Went and got more jars today, and sugar and pectin. I'll bet you can guess what I'm going to be doing tomorrow, right?

Yummmm!

:)