Give it time. 24 hours isn't nearly long enough for set to develop in pectin-free jam - more like 3-6 weeks. Did you do the freezer test on a sample of it before jarring?

As for that you added pectin to, if done correctly it should have begun to set before you even filled the jars. What/which pectin did you use? What set of instructions? How long did you boil it?

Dave

Cherries are very low in natural pectin, so it will be slower to gel/maybe never gel than other fruits. If you just used juice, that's technically jelly. Jam would include parts of the fruit. So I'm going to assume this is jelly. Yes?

Please post the recipe and method you used to make both versions. That's really the only way we can troubleshoot it (to a certain degree - sometimes jellies/jams just won't cooperate even though you've been successful with that recipe in the past.)

I know how frustrating "syrup" can be. It took a couple of years and lots of fruit before I got my strawberry-rhubarb jam to turn out the way I wanted. But the mistakes (No, wait! I really meant for that batch to be syrup) were pretty good over ice cream :-)

The pectin recipe was probably my fault. I added the sugar with the powdered pectin and lemon juice at the beginning. Brought it to a hard boil for 2 mins then poured into jar. Now I realize that the directions say to add the pectin alone at the beginning, boil it first then add the sugar. Would that have made a difference?

I would rather make it without added pectin, if possible. It is jelly but with tiny bits of fruit in it, but not a lot. It's not clear.

This is what I did with the no-pectin-added cherry juice. I mixed 4 cups of juice and 4 cups of sugar (3 3/4 cups table sugar plus 1/4 cup corn syrup) and 2 tablespoons lemon juice at the beginning and made sure it was all well dissolved before boiling. I then brought it all to a hard rolling boil until it reached a good 220 degrees F. Then I poured into hot boiled jars, sealed and put into BWB for another 10 mins.

It seemed gelled on the test frozen dishes. The sample jar that I cooled off in the fridge, which did not go through the 10 min BWB is thick syrup.

Can I expect the 10 min BWB to further thicken the jam when it does gel? I'm willing to wait a few weeks but would just like to know if this should work before I do the rest.

Should I cook it to 222 instead? Would that additional 2 degrees make a difference?

I made grape last year this way but it crystallized after just a few days open. That's why I added the 1/4 cup corn syrup this year and they gelled right away but I think I overcooked them. Trying to avoid that this year.

Yes that would have made a great deal of difference with the pectin. Thus the directions. :)

Wife is the jelly/jam maker in our family so I defer to her 40+ years of experience but she tells me making cherry stuff without pectin is difficult at best because as malna said they are so low in natural pectin. She says cherry jam, full jam, and preserves will set without pectin for her, but she's never been able to get cherry jelly to hard set without pectin no matter how long she boils it. It gets thicker she say over time but never develops a full set. All of her recipes for cherry jelly call for added pectin and a quick browse through the internet supports that.

So passing on the info she is telling me - Her point is from what you have said, just getting it to 220 isn't enough. You have to keep it at that temp actively boiling for 2-3 mins. before turning it off to skim and jar. And on some days with high humidity it may have to boil even longer to set.

She's never used corn syrup so doesn't know what effect that would have.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Thanks for the info Dave :-) I'm also making purple grape jelly soon. Does your wife have success getting it to gel without pectin? Do her without-pectin jams/jellies crystallize in the jar within a few weeks after opening? That happened with the grape I made last year with pectin. The corn syrup is suppose to prevent that. Never used it before myself either. I'm experimenting, trying to get a recipe for stable jams that I can depend on, rather than constantly re-doing them. That gets expensive when using pectin!

The peach jam always makes right away with pectin. Never had a thin batch yet and I didn't even follow the directions properly. It just always sets. Must have a lot of natural pectin... I'm also going to make some apple jelly. I have no doubt that it'll set fine without adding pectin to it.

I guess I'll call that batch cherry "syrup". I'll make the rest of the cherry with pectin and follow the directions exactly, henceforth. Oh well, I had to try :-) I made it last year and it gelled. Just can't remember what I did... :-(

I made cherry jam today!! I used added pectin and followed the directions, for a change! lol! It worked perfectly. I also used the whole fruit without pits and blendered it smooth before making it into jam. It's fun when it works!

I also have 19 pint jars of cherry syrup from the cooking-it-without pectin experiment. It will get used too, I'm sure. Actually, there's probably more uses for syrup than jam. Half the syrup jars were boiled to 220F, the other half were boiled to who-know-what temp. I dropped the digital thermometer into the syrup at 180F then rinsed it off, at which time it quit working. I continued to boil it for 10 more minutes then jarred. I bought an extra long glass thermometer today.

I'm encouraged by the jam I made with pectin today! I'm making more cherry jam tomorrow. I'm thrilled to find that it does work after all! I'll be doing grape soon and it's notoriously had to gel. I made peach yesterday. It always gels.

Update: the who-knows-what temp cooked cherry jam did gel today. I wish I know how to do it again! lol! However, that said, it does have pectin in it that didn't "take" when I first made it. Maybe that's why it gelled?

Hooray, at least it finally became jelly. I do make some low sugar sweet cherry jam, but I do use pectin when I do that, as it's one of the fruits that give me trouble sometimes. I make sweet cherry spread without pectin, but it's not really jam, it's more like cherry butter, cooked until thick. Depending on the juiciness of the cherries, that can take a while.

I've had some grape jelly that crystallizes and haven't figured out why. One source says it's from undercooking the jelly, and that instead of starting at high heat, start lower and cook longer. Other extension services say cook it rapidly and remove it as soon as it is done. I've also been told to ladle the jelly into jars, don't pour it from the pan, as the sugar crystals on the side of the pan will get into your jars and cause the sugar crystals. I've also told that it's from using too much sugar, so I'll be darned if I actually know.

Annie

This is from Linda Ziedrich's book "The Joy of Jams, Jellies and Other Sweet Preserves"
"To avoid finding crunchy bits in your grape jelly, you need to let the juice rest overnight so that the tartrate crystals will form and can be strained out."

Also the last time I made a no pectin cherry jam I added some cranberries for the pectin and it jelled like a champ.