I had the pleasure of working with two teenagers on a project to learn how to preserve food. The session began with applesauce and continued with making apple jelly from scratch. We started with 6 pounds of apples, which we turned into 20 jars of homemade applesauce. We had no intention of trashing those peels and cores. We turned our scraps into apple jelly, and it’s fairly easy to do. This project started with a variety of apples- Granny Smith, Pink Lady and Fuji. If you want to know more about the apples and how we prepared them for applesauce, read the post titled Frugal Living: Making Applesauce. While we prepared the applesauce, the scraps were placed in a large stock pot. To the discarded peels and cores from six pounds of apples, we added six cups of water. We brought this up to a boil then simmered it on low heat for 30 minutes. If you don’t have access to any apples, but you still want the experience of making your own apple jelly, take the shortcut and use bottled apple juice. My favorite is Organic Honey Crisp. You can also use this same method with grape juice. I know what you are thinking. Why should I spend all this time making jelly on my own when I can pick up a jar right off the shelf, especially if I’m buying the juice? Believe me. Homemade jelly tastes nothing like what you buy from the store. If you can get your hands on free apples from your own backyard or some other source, well, that makes it taste so much sweeter. Strain the juice. This can be done using a simple stainless steel mesh strainer since the pieces are fairly large. For fruits with smaller seeds or skins that retain liquid like blackberries or muscadine, I use cheesecloth. But that is not necessary here unless you have a large amount of flesh attached to the skins. Then, you would wrap the scraps inside two to three layers of cheesecloth and squeeze or twist the ends to release the liquid. The magic of these loosely weaved threads always surprises me. Three cups of apple juice are needed for this recipe. We used our electric jelly and jam maker for this. First, whisk four tablespoons of pectin into the apple juice. Add one half teaspoon of butter to prevent as much frothing as possible. Select the Jelly option on the machine and place the top on the pot. About three minutes in, add the three and a half cups of sugar. The machine we use beeps when it is time. The total time to prepare jelly in this automatic maker is 25 minutes. This may vary depending upon the appliance you are using or if you cook it on the stove.
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AuthorI'm a wife, mother, daughter, educator, writer and hobby farmer. Welcome to my world of simply living. Archives
December 2023
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