I made crabapple jelly today. I had 6 cups of juice from the steam
juicer, so I boiled it down to 4+ cups and topped it off with water to
bring it back to 5. Added 7.5 cups of sugar and brought it to a boil.
(boy, was it foamy) Opened the packet of Ball equivalent of Certo,
dated October 2008, and squeezed it in. It was gelled in the packet. I
assumed it would melt, so I broke it up and stirred it in and brought
the jelly back to a boil. The pectin broke up into little pieces but
very little of it dissolved.

I had to strain the jelly into the jars, and I don't know if I'll have
syrup or jelly. (probably too-soft jelly, which is OK by me.) I've got
6 very pretty half-int jars, and 2 ugly ones, and a little bowl of foam
that I can use to sweeten a smoothie or something.

I've used old boxes of dry pectin before without any problem. This was
the first time I've knowingly used liquid pectin that was more than 2
years old -- and it wasn't much over 2 years. It was bad news.

-Bob