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William R. Watt
 
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How long you have to boil down the juice depends on how concentrated it is
in the first place. You only have to boil down to get sufficient pectin
concentration which you can test for using ethyl rubbing alcohol. I wrote
earlier that I put just half a tsp of the alchol in a shot glass and when
the juice comes to a boil drip 3 drops into the alchohol and jiggle it
about a bit. If it forms a glob in under 30 seconds there is sufficient
pectin concentration. If it does not form a glob boil a minute longer and
test again and repeat until it does. I get a glob the first try. Then
just add sugar and boil to "cook" the sugar. Regardless if pectin is added
or not the sugar boil, I assume, will be the same.

You might have a problem with the soft fruit. Pectin is what makes fruit
firm. As fruit ripens pectin is converted to sugar and the fruit gets
soft. So soft fruit, less pectin. I actually use green apples and
crabapples for pectin, before the seeds turn brown. I picked in late July.
(My 'fridge is packed with old jam jars full of fruit juices).

It's been a nice summer for fruit here too, and grass. There was
sufficient rain that the lawns never dried out and turned brown, very
unusual. It would have been nice to have a dry spell before harvest to
bump up the sugar content of the fruit.

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