Apologies to any musicians inadvertently directed to this page. As the photograph shows, we are going to talk about how my plum preserves went pear-shaped, rather than spontaneous melodic interactions.
I am terribly disappointed to find some of my first attempts with plums ready to explode. It was arrogant, I suppose, to think that I'd smashed it first time up.
Googling possible causes, I think I can eliminate not skimming the bubbles as the plums were cooking, because I did do that. I don't think it was a hygiene issue as I washed the jars in boiling hot water and dried them in the oven. This should have sterilised them properly. That leaves me with the possibility that I did not seal the jar completely and/or I let a bad plum or two through the prepping process.
A second jar fizzed today. It was from the same batch. And both jars were ones that were not boiled after filling. So maybe the absence of a bain-marie is key?
Meanwhile, we wait and check and hope. The last unboiled jar is by the kitchen sink so if anything untoward takes place while we are busy living our lives, the mess shouldn't be too difficult to clean up.
Apropos of nothing, when googling bain-marie (or bagno-maria here), it was named after a person called Mary the Jewess or Mary the Prophetess. According to Wiki she is considered to be the first true alchemist of the Western world.
It was disheartening to find my lovely jar full of fermentation. But I won't give up. The next fruit to be preserved according to locality and season will be, we hope, the fig. They should be at their best later in August. That should give me time to learn more about jamming.
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