in article , William R. Watt at
wrote on 13/10/03 7:38 pm:

a test for pectin content, not a jell test, is to mix in methyated
spirits for a couple of minutes. the size of the globules indicates the
amount of pectin. never tried this test. came across it in a book.

one jell test while making jelly is dropping some in the ethyl alcohol.
another is letting the heated juice run off a silver or stainless steel spoon.
both tests are done before adding the sugar. I tried both tests several
times and they didn't work for me. I'd have to see someone else do it
right.

I read that the cold saucer test is for jam, not jelly. I saw it in a
government booklet on making jams and jellies. The same booklet gave the
ethyl alcohol test for jelly. Same booklet, different tests for jam and
jelly.


--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-freenet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned
This is about quince jam, not jelly, but has some of the same problems. We
made quince jam with very ripe quince, just picked the night before. Just
sugar, quince and a little orange juice. We cooked it until it tested done
on a frozen plate, bottled and sealed with a 5 minute BWB When 2 jars were
used they were more like sauce than jam in consistency. Good but not at all
jammy. Maybe the ripeness of quince is a real factor With most fruit I
have considered this, but quince are supposed to be ( and in my experience ,
have been) so h igh in pectin that this shouldn't be a problem.