Because these jams are not processed in a boiling-water bath, you can use pretty jars with one-piece screw-on lids or old-fashioned jars with clamp-on lids. Just make sure that your jars and utensils are scrupulously clean, and refrigerate the jam as soon as it cools to room temperature.

Homemade jams can be finicky, even for experienced cooks. The most reliable recipes use commercial pectin, a natural substance that allows liquids (such as fruit juice) to gel. Pectin is sold in powdered and liquid forms; stores that carry canning supplies, including most supermarkets and some hardware stores, usually have both. Don't substitute one form of pectin for the other. If you follow the recipe exactly, you should have good results every time.

Instead of using purchased pectin, many recipes rely on the natural pectin in fruits. The amount of natural pectin can vary widely, with underripe fruits having more. Recipes without added pectin tend to be longer-cooking, and the timing of the recipe is a guess more than a guide.

When making jams without added pectin, the best way to judge the gel point - the temperature that will result in a jam that's not too thick or too thin - is to use a thermometer and cook until the liquid is exactly 220 degrees. Less precise but time-tested are the spoon test and the plate test. If a spoonful of jam slides off a metal spoon in a sheet rather than in drops, it is ready. Or put a few plates in the freezer. When you think the jam is ready, spoon a bit onto a cold plate and let cool to room temperature. If the jam is set, it has cooked enough.

One of our recipes, for Minted Raspberry-Peach Freezer Jam, requires no cooking at all (although the sugar is warmed in the oven so it dissolves more easily). Even more so than with most jam recipes, this one requires patience - it needs to sit at room temperature up to 24 hours for the jam to set.

And if this - or any other fruit jam - fails to set, don't despair. Simply call it a sauce, and ladle it over ice cream, pound cake, waffles or pancakes.