zxcvbob wrote:

> 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.

i'm not a super experienced jam maker
nor have i used liquid pectin, but it
seems strange to me to add pectin to
a hot liquid. the recipe i used today
had the pectin going into the fruit
mash and sitting for a while before
heating. i'm not sure if that's the
problem or not.

i'm hoping jam makers with more
experience will comment too.


songbird