The Lemon Fool

I went out to get a replacement jar of marmalade and I thought I'd bring in a spare as well. The first jar was labelled 2018. The second was labelled 2010. I think it's fair to call that vintage.

I put the 2018 away and grabbed another jar of 2010.

I'd have done the same. If it hadn't turned blue with mould in the first couple of years (and possibly even if it had), it was good for the duration. Scrape off the furry bits and add a little brandy for maximum effect.

BJ

O/T: Great stuff, glass. I've told this story before, so apologies, but when I was studying in Berlin in the early 1970s, my elderly neighbour had a row of bottled sausages on her shelf. With swastikas on the labels..... The last of her government food rations from 1945, and still edible after nearly 30 years. As she proved every Christmas when she opened a jar. The building we both lived in had been bombed half to pieces when the Allies finally moved in, but Hitler's sausages had been made of tougher stuff.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:I'd have done the same. If it hadn't turned blue with mould in the first couple of years (and possibly even if it had), it was good for the duration. Scrape off the furry bits and add a little brandy for maximum effect.

BJ

I can't say I've ever seen my wife's marmalade go blue. I haven't opened these yet, but I imagine they will be in pretty good condition. Maybe a bit of crystallisation, but I would be really surprised to see mould.

Yes, it's odd, jam sometimes goes a little mouidy but never OH's marmalade.

V8

88V8 wrote:Yes, it's odd, jam sometimes goes a little mouidy but never OH's marmalade.

V8

The thing that troubles me is that fruit is preserved with sugar in order to prevent it going mouldy, and fruit so preserved is called 'jam'.

So why does jam go mouldy?

tsr2 wrote:I went out to get a replacement jar of marmalade and I thought I'd bring in a spare as well. The first jar was labelled 2018. The second was labelled 2010. I think it's fair to call that vintage.

I had another look today. I haven't inventoried it properly, but most of it is either unlabelled or from 2018. I did find a 2008, a 2009 and another 2010.

Mike4 wrote:

88V8 wrote:Yes, it's odd, jam sometimes goes a little mouidy but never OH's marmalade.

V8

The thing that troubles me is that fruit is preserved with sugar in order to prevent it going mouldy, and fruit so preserved is called 'jam'.

So why does jam go mouldy?

Possibly because it has been exposed to the air? In any case, the underlying jam is perfectly ok to eat, I wouldn't throw it out.

john