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George Shirley
 
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Default What I did with 78 pounds of Red Flame seedless grapes

Casey Wilson wrote:
> A few weeks ago, an 18-wheeler had an accident on Highway-58 down near
> Boron, about 50 miles from here. The trailer, loaded with 40,000 pounds of
> Red Flame seedless grapes landed on its side. A local, to me, towing and
> wrecking service got the job of putting the trailer upright and hauling to
> Ridgecrest. The way the load was packed, only a few tons of the grapes
> suffered any damage. The tow company operator estimated that about 33,000
> pounds were salvageable.
> The insurance company told him to just hang on to them for about a week
> while they figured out what should be done. The operator pointed out that
> the temperature up here was 105 on that particular day, the insurance
> weenies said get rid of the fruit as best he could. Somehow, the fact that
> the refrigeration system was working fine didn't come into the picture.
> Well, the agriculture people said the grapes were okay for human
> consumption but the commerce folks said they couldn't sell them. That turned
> it into the Great Grape Giveaway. I ended up with 78 pounds. We gave maybe
> 25 pounds to friends and relatives and this is what we did to the remainder.
> We de-stemmed and froze about 15 pounds, loose, one layer, on trays,
> then bagged them in quarts. Eating them frozen is like popping a grape
> flavored ice ball in your mouth. Surprisingly, I discovered that when they
> thaw out, the texture is softer than before they went into the freezer, but
> certainly not as mushy as I expected. As with Thompson seedless variety.
> Next came making jelly. In the past, we've had great success with both
> peaches and strawberries, making jam without using pectin. The results there
> are a more flavorful product with deeper color. The trade off is reduced
> volume because you have to cook the liquid down to make it thicker and
> activate the natural pectin.
> The first batch, I cooked according to directions provided by the USDA
> and cooked to 214°F, just like I do peaches. The result was a sticky, gooey
> ooze that clings to the roof of the mouth. It tastes great, but has the
> consistency of honey and sort of flows off the toast.
> Areading the USDA info a second time, we boiled the juice with the
> skins to recover the natural pectin. And, I decided to raise the temperature
> to 218. Better flavor still, and it was -slightly- thicker than honey, but
> it still clung to the roof of the mouth and oozed off the toast.
> In frustration, I cooked another batch to 235°. Har, har! It didn't
> ooze. But I couldn't stick a spoon in it, either. In fact, a sharp knife
> blade met a whole lot of resistance. I ended up dipping the jars in boiling
> water to loosen the sides and prying the goo out to discard it
> While we reconsidered what we were doing, we figured it was time to do
> a batch adding commercial pectin. I did that in the face of information off
> the internet that jelly could only be made from Concord grapes. At least
> that's what the proponents of the rec.food.preserving newsgroup wanted me to
> believe. Who cares that the pectin package directions also called for
> Concord variety! The yeild was about 1/3 more jars and the flavor as
> expected wasn't as bright.
> Surprise! The result was a batch of stuff that wiggles like jelly,
> tastes good [if a little milder], and doesn't drip off the toast when you're
> trying to eat it. I guess if it walks like a duck, you can call it jelly.
> Okay, that left us with two batches of juice left, not counting the couple
> of quarts we'd quaffed along the way. I thought about wine, but its the
> wrong time of the year here in the desert to try and control the
> temperature.
> Time for one more pectin-less batch. Seriously now, I read up on
> temperature lapse rates, atmospheric pressure, humidity, and how all that
> affects the boiling point of water. Thirty minutes on the calculator and I
> determined the ideal temperature for our altitude, barometric pressure,
> yadda, yadda... in the middle of summer when calculated against the USDA
> recommended cooking temperature, meant the ideal temperature should be 220°.
> I missed it by one degree and the batch went to 221 before I got the pot off
> the burner.
> The result -- you can eat it before it drips off the toast, it tastes
> good, and doesn't stick to your palate. But it won't support a spoon.
> An executive decision sent the last batch of juice into the pot with a
> package of commercial pectin. The jelly is clear enough to read the Kerr
> insignia backwards on the opposite side. The color is a nice red. I've got
> two jars set aside to enter in the fall fair competition. I'll let you know
> how that ends up.
>
>

Small point here - all my preserving books plus other data says the
natural jelling point on this sort of stuff is 222F. When I cook
jellies, jams, marmalades w/o pectin I always go to 222F and, nearly
always - remember Murphy?, get jelly, jam, or marmalade that is the
right consistency. A good candy thermometer is your best friend. <VBG>

I'm sure glad we didn't have that truck roll over around here. My
thrifty soul would have insisted on salvaging it all. Reminds me of the
time I came home from a hunting trip with a pickup bed completely full
of wild grapes. My wife wouldn't speak to me for a month.

George