there are many fig recipes without added pectin, and in the last few years I have tried them. The fatal flaw is of course a very long cooking time in order to get the mix to thicken properly, which gives the jam more of a cooked flavor. I prefer my fig jams to have a fresher figgy flavor. Seriously, the most compliments I ever got on any jam was last year's batch of Strawberry Fig Jam. I used SureJell No Sugar Needed pectin and a reduced amount of sugar: Low Sugar Strawberry Fig Jam--makes 6 half pint jars. 3 cups of peeled and quartered figs 3 cups of hulled and crushed strawberries 2 cups sugar 1 box no sugar needed pectin Juice from 1/2 a small lemon (optional, but I like what it does) Put fruit and lemon juice, if using, into your large saucepan. Measure out your sugar into a separate bowl. Take 1/4 cup of that sugar and mix separately with the contents of the box of pectin (this helps it dissolve better without clumping). Put pectin/sugar mix in with the fruit, mix in well, and cook on medium/high heat stirring constantly. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil, then remove from heat and let it stop boiling. Pour in the rest of the sugar, stir thouroughly until it's dissolved, then put back on heat and return it to a full rolling boil. Let it boil hard for just one minute, then remove from heat, skim foam, and divide into jars. Seal and process for 10 minutes for half- pint jars, 15 minutes for pint jars. You can do this recipe with all figs instead of half strawberry, it still comes out very well. But I like the mixture of flavors, strawberry and fig complement eachother nicely; plus it comes out a lovely red color.

Well then, that must have been my problem because I did double the recipe!! I didn't realize you couldn't! I know you're not supposed to fool around with amounts in recipes so you keep the acid ratio correct, but where this was just strawberries and sugar and nothing else in the recipe I figured it was ok! I guess not! And I measured out 4 quarts of whole strawberries. The recipe was 2 quarts of strawberries and 6 cups of sugar. It didn't say to cut them or mash them before measuring - in fact (I'm remembering off the top of my head here as I don't have the book with me) it said to crush the strawberries one layer at a time and then to mix with the sugar, so it sounded to me like you measured the whole strawberries, then crushed them and that's what I did. I'm not going to fuss with what I already made - as I said, it won't go to waste as hubby will use it as pancake topping - we've even been known to plop a spoonful of jam in a bowl of oatmeal, so this stuff will work for that as well. But I'm glad I spoke up because for future adventures in jam, I wouldn't have known any of this and would probably have given up on it if I kept failing! And I thought it was weird that the jam recipe that used the pectin used an extra cup of sugar from the one without pectin. I've learned so much from just this thread - thanks so much guys! I want to take my next adventure into the realm of peaches! Peach jam sounds yummy and if I fail again, hubby does like peaches, so he'll have more pancake topping than he knows what to do with lol!! Lisa

Virginia, I'm sorry, I just saw your message. I went to Stribling's Orchards in the Markham/Warrenton area. Very nice. The family has been on the land since about 1820. Easy to get to from 66, as well. www.striblingorchard.com I decided on a combination of Courtlands and Jonathans. I ended up getting something like 15 pounds so I'll have extra. They're chilling nicely in my spare fridge right now. I got the jars and lids, but I'll be darned if I can find a canning funnel for the 8 ounce jelly jars. Nancy, Yeah, I should have realized that the pressure cooker wouldn't work and would mush the apples. It doesn't a incredible job of mushing sweet potatoes!

One other possible explanation is that maple syrups vary in their thickeness/water content. Maybe that's why the reipe states "grade B" syrup, which is slightly thicker than Grade A. This is very slight, but some syrups are indeed thicker. Or if you used some other type of syrup that wasn't maple syrup, then maybe it didn't thicken up. I mean if you just take plain old maple syrup and cook and whip it up enough you will get maple cream even without added ingredients (Or you will get black taffy or set the house on fire, one of the three!)