What do you do with all your old jams and chutneys

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omokoroa1, Apr 30, 3:46am
that your family have lost interest in?.........stick around i'll tell you what i did with mine ..............you probably wont believe me
omokoroa1, Apr 30, 4:05am
i was making feijoa chutney last weekand the recipe needed crystalized ginger and our local shop didnt have any BUT they did have fruit cakemix.........haha yup you guessed i brought that instead and used it in my chutneythe shop lady thought i was nuts when she asked me if i was making a fruit cake and i said no im making chutney ...............anyway while that was cooking away id seen all the half eaten jams that my family had pushed to the back of the fridge and cupboardyup you guessed it........i call them nana jamsmarmalade,plum jam,crabapple jamall the jams nana gavesome of the a good few yrs oldall went into the pot with the feijoa chutney ...........the kids love it .............spiced meat sauce is the new name ......yummy...........so dont chuck all your old pickles and jams away ..........
juliewn, Apr 30, 4:16am
Recycling at its most delicious :-)
jen211, Apr 30, 5:46am
What a fantastic idea
rainrain1, Apr 30, 5:50am
ewwwww
omokoroa1, Apr 30, 6:01am
my chutney needed crystlized ginger it also needed sultanas..........i mean why not use fruit cake mix it has all the ingredientsseems a cheaper wayto buy
the batch i made yesterday would go excellent with meat and vegieshad like a sweet and tangytastebut left a very nice after taste.....cheaper than tomato sauce my teenagers love it ...........try it you wont be dissapointed
omokoroa1, Apr 30, 6:04am
what ever rain............i take it you dont like to mix and mingle in the kitchen......ohhh dear another store brought person
rainrain1, Apr 30, 6:16am
I wish
nainmary, Apr 30, 6:32am
I make pinwheel scones, everyone seems to really like them even Hubby that dislikes chutneys etc. Seems to like them more than jam ones!I never throw out any old stuff now.
huntlygirl, Apr 30, 7:19am
I use up any xmas mince left over in tomato sauce and it gives an excellent tang. Most chutneys and jams here are eaten but occassionally I will add to meatloaf as a glaze.
lythande1, Apr 30, 8:11pm
I don't have any. I make what they like, not stuff that won't get eaten and it's always gone by the time the next lot is due to be made.
greerg, Apr 30, 9:29pm
I don't have old ones either.I keep the jars in the freezer and they never shrink or darken.So if the family have a plum sauce year in tead of an apricot year or go for tomato chutney instead of beetroot for a while it doesn't matter.Also if I do get carried away and make too much there always seem to be keen recipients for homemade preserves nowadays since not everyone makes them any more.
janny3, May 1, 6:23am
Good one.I always have forgotten jars of jams & uneaten preserves gifted to me by friends & family.I hate to waste them when I know how much work good ingredients went into them so will do that too.Thanks.
beaker59, May 1, 11:54pm
I recycle and back blend allot my last chutney isn't that good though (palmed some off on my ex wife though and she liked it he he he) so will make a new one soon and throw whats left of the old one into it. Recycled a failed Mandarin marmalade into the latest batch of Grapefruit marmalade and its awesome :) most of that batch has been pinched by visiting kids already as the grandchildren like granddads marmalade.
asue, May 2, 12:37am
I throw mine all in a meatloaf.If its jam - just had spices etc to balance it out
buzzy110, May 2, 12:40am
Mandarin marmalade - cool. How'd you get rid of all those pesky pips? Maybe it would have worked better if you'd used mandarins that weren't fully ripe. But it is hard to strip a mandarin tree of not quite ripe fruit, eh?
janny3, May 3, 11:04am
Emptied all the leftover jams into the chutney pot w/ the cake fruit mix instead of separate ginger & dried fruit.

Guess I had more unused jams hanging around because tho' I'd added no sugar to the mix, the end result is too sweet.So I put in extra onions, more vinegar, spices & salt to counter the sweetness but it will still taste like a jam until I get in more fresh fruit.

Not my best results aye.
kob, May 3, 7:03pm
a girl tru to my heart, I would do something like that, i remember a while ago having a batch of plum jam that looked really pale, and had not set properly, everyone was avoiding it with the plague, so one weekend when i was left to my own devices, I opened them all reboiled them and added a good dunck of food colouring to it plus a strawberry jelly, well you guessed it once rebottled it was the best thing in town we had it on weetbix, toast even wanted friggin luiose cake with it on, and jam tarts the works so those were the best 13 jars of plum sauce ever ( started with 17)lol
lilyfield, May 3, 7:41pm
what leftovers?Everything gets eaten in this house
janny3, May 4, 1:03am
Spoke too soon.

No one bothered eating the stray jars of nanna-styled blackberry, fig, plum, passionfruit jams cluttering the back of the fridge so I dumped them into the feijoa chutney w/ the cake fruit mix but no sugar.So it was too sweet.

After simmering for ages w/ yet more vinegar, spices & salt, I turned the stove off last night deciding to recook & then bottle.

Sampled a spoonful on a cheese sandwich today tastes beautiful.

Thanks for the tips.
janny3, May 4, 1:24am
Forgot to mention also added dried fried onions I'd previously purchased from the Indian store, to help counteract the sweetness.Time to reheat & bottle now.

Glad I recycled those old nanna jams no body wanted any more.Thanks again Omokoroa.
kob, May 4, 3:39am
not them, they went through two grocery bags of asparagus,(friends were picking it and were givin the odd shaped ones or 2nds) and they hate it, I peeled the spikes off and cut the stalks to look like brocolli, they love brocolli so devoured it,mind you we did have a few too many stirfrys,but the same asparagus that I did in brine sat in the fridge and grew mould, so in my house its what the eye does not see, i could continiue and continue, but you can pull the wool over the family's eyes you just have to have a poker face, and when they become tired off something reinvent it.
janny3, May 4, 10:00am
Out of 5 jars of unfinished old nanna jams (blackberry, plum, figs, feijoa, passionfruit etc) I got 7 jars of new, thick, sweet, spicy black chutney made w/ the cake-fruit-mix.My home support worker stirred & tasted it while I was outside.She took a jar for her boys. LOL!

Perfect on a cheese sandwich.

Thanks kob,

I meant to say I would not have thought about the jelly crystals & food colourings if you'd not suggested.
omokoroa1, May 4, 5:46pm
hey janny been reading your posts N1 sorry huni dont measure anything so i couldnt tell quantities ..........when i cook i cook like making witches brew .........lol looks a mess but tastes good with all this yukky weather in Tauranga there has been nothing else to do but make preserves the feijoas are falling on ground because of this stormy weather ............i need a change of fruitmy pantry is getting all feijoaed out made feijoa jamyesterday funny you should mention the cheese thing because mr 17 was eating the jam on a cheese sandwhichhe saidit was yumm as
fifie, May 5, 12:46am
Great idea isn't it in these times of expensive food. Good for you i do the same and if i miss any in the pantry i bring the jars right to the front row so i see them when making gravey, casseroles, slow cooker meals just use a good size spoonful in these, and that gets rid of the rest giving me more jars for the next pickle/chutney season.