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["Here's how the technique goes: Cut up the fruit and weigh it. Add an equal weight of sugar. Bring it to a boil on top of the stove and then let it sit overnight to macerate. The next day, finish the jam a couple of cups at a time in a nonstick skillet. Cooked over medium-high heat, it'll set in less than five minutes.", "", "How do you know when the jam has set? First, you'll feel it. While stirring the jam, you'll feel the texture change from light and liquid to heavier and smoother.", "", "But the surest way is by watching the way the jam falls from the stirring spoon. When you first start cooking the jam, it will come off in one stream, like water. When it's almost ready, it'll fall off in multiple streams, but still slightly liquid. Cook it 30 seconds or so more and you'll notice that a sheet begins to form at the base of the spoon. That's the moment.", "", "Remove the jam immediately from the heat and pour it into the storage containers. If you taste now (Careful! It's blistering hot), you'll find that the texture will have a slight cooked-sugar stickiness and the jam will seem too loose. Chill it for a couple of hours and you'll see that it will have set up perfectly and the stickiness will be gone.", "", "Because different fruits contain different amounts of pectin, you may need to play around a bit. I've used this technique successfully for peaches, plums and nectarines and for strawberries.", "", "Furthermore, with almost all jams, you're better off using fruit that is slightly under-ripe rather than over (ignore those signs that proclaim ""ideal for canning""). Under-ripe fruit is higher in pectin and, while it may be a little lower in sugar, that's not really a problem with jam, is it? When I'm sorting fruit to make jam, I usually set any truly ripe fruit aside to make pie."]
