RCP: Homemade pectin

We made a big batch of pectin over the weekend, in preparation for 2009 jam making. I've put together a tutorial with pictures on my blog, but thought I'd copy the instructions here for Howard, who asked about it earlier.

Ingredients:

* Lots of apples (not over-ripe, as they don’t seem to work)
* Water

1. Peel and core the apples (turn the pulp into apple sauce or apple butter). Place all the peel and cores into a large pot and pour in enough water to just float them.

2. Cover and bring the pot to a rolling boil, then reduce the heat and allow to boil gently (covered) for a couple of hours, or until the solids all turn soft and mushy.

3. Line a colander with a clean piece of calico and pour boiling water through it to sterilise the fabric. Place the colander over a large stock pot and carefully tip the apple mass and liquid through it. Do not press the pulp, or you’ll get cloudy pectin. Leave the whole thing to drip for several hours or overnight (I usually fold the ends of the cloth over the top of the apples, then cover gently with the stockpot lid, in a perhaps futile attempt to keep the insects out).

4. When the liquid has completely drained through, remove the colander and reheat the pectin until boiling. You now need to reduce the pectin until it reaches the strength you require - as we don’t want it to set rocky hard (Pete likes his jams softly set), we normally just boil it a bit to make sure it’s all hot before we start canning. Because we’re using just the cores and skins, the pectin is usually very strong anyway, but some recipes use the whole apple, in which case you’d need to boil the liquid down by about 50%.

Here is the test - pour a little pectin into a small bowl and put it in the fridge to cool (test won’t work if the pectin is hot). In another bowl, pour some methylated spirits, then tip the cold pectin into it. If you’ve made decent pectin, it will coagulate in the meths, and you should be able to lift it out as a jellied blob with a fork. Please - make sure no-one accidentally drinks the contents of the bowl!



5. In order to store the pectin, you can either freeze it, or pour it into sterile glass jars, seal, and then process the jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Only a short step away from herb jellies, which I don't make much, but have been known to. Green-ish or just-ripe apples seem to be the best bet. Here's a recipe lifted from the old Stratsplace forum.

****

SAGE JELLY

Chop up five pounds of cooking apples (Granny Smiths are good). Don’t peel or core them. Put them in a large pot or jam pan with two to two and a half pints of cold water and a handful of parsley (do not chop up the parsley, leave it in big sprigs). Bring to the boil and simmer for about 45 min. Stir occasionally so it doesn't stick. Then, add 2 pints vinegar, turn up the heat and boil 5 min.

Ladle the pulp into a jelly bag (or old pillow case) and leave to strain into a large bowl - overnight or for up to 12 hours. Don’t squeeze: let gravity do it.

Measure the liquid that has drained into the bowl, and put it into a pan with a pound of white sugar for each pint of liquid. Heat gently till the sugar is dissolved then bring to boil and boil rapidly for 10 min. Test for setting: drop a teaspoonful on a cold plate, and see if it cools to a jam-like consistency.

Take off the heat. Skim any froth off the top. Stir in 8 – 10 tablespoons chopped fresh sage. Add a few drops of green colour if you like. Put into clean jars and seal.

You can use other herbs such as rosemary, thyme, parsley, or mint instead of sage. Eat with hot or cold roast meats.

Mint jelly - an Aussie tradition! I'm interested in the addition of vinegar, Matilda - I haven't done that before - thanks for the suggestion. Will give it a whirl when the grannies get cheap...