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From: "Tradingpost"
Date: Sat Oct 7, 2006 02:59:02 US/Central
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Subject: (")OWL(") Making Your Own Apple Pectin
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http://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com...ger/pectin.htm

Making Your Own Apple Pectin
By Sam Thayer
From The Forager. Volume 1, Issue 3. August-September 2001

When making homemade jams and jellies, commercial powdered pectin is
usually the most expensive ingredient. A few generations ago, powdered
pectin wasn't readily available, and the skill of making pectin at home
was
common knowledge for the family cook - yet today it is a rare individual
who knows how to do this. I learned how to extract pectin from apples a
few
years ago when I made jams and jellies for a living (as many as 600 jars
per day). Not only does this save money, but more importantly, it
provides
the satisfaction that only comes with doing things from scratch - one of
the reasons that I love using wild foods.

To prepare liquid apple pectin, it is best to use under-ripe apples that
are still a bit green, hard, and sour. Ripe apples contain less pectin,
but
the level varies greatly from one tree to the next; some varieties are
suitable when ripe, while some have virtually no pectin by that time.
Over-ripe apples are the worst. You can use your damaged or misshapen
apples for making pectin. Chop them in halves or quarters, fill a large
pot, and then add just enough water to almost cover the apple chunks.
Cover
the pot and place it on low heat for a long time, until the apples are
fully cooked and you have something that looks like runny applesauce with
skins and seeds in it. Stir the apples every twenty minutes or so while
they are cooking.

I arrange a strainer for this "sauce" by placing a cheese cloth
(actually a
white T-shirt) over the top of a five-gallon pail, secured by a cord tied
around the rim. (A piece of cheese cloth in a colander works fine for
smaller amounts.) The hot applesauce is then poured into the strainer;
what
drips out the bottom should be a clear, thick liquid that's a little bit
slimy to the touch. That's your liquid apple pectin. I usually let mine
strain overnight, because it drips slowly. You can get more pectin by
pressing it, but then it comes out a little cloudy and carries more of
the
under-ripe apple flavor. I like to make a few gallons of this pectin at a
time and then save it by canning or freezing - it's not hard to get a
year's supply with one batch.

To test the strength of the pectin, pour a little bit of rubbing alcohol
into a glass and then drop in a spoonful of pectin. The pectin will
coagulate into a jelly-like mass. If this mass can be pulled out with a
fork and it forms a heaping gob on the tines, it is concentrated enough
to
jell perfectly. If it can be picked up by the fork, but mostly hangs from
it, then it will jell loosely. If it cannot be picked up by the fork in
mostly one mass, then the concentration is too weak for it to jell. In
this
latter case, you just have to boil it down to increase the concentration
of
the pectin. (Note: the alcohol test doesn't work right if the pectin is
hot.)

You can mix liquid apple pectin with fruit or juice and boil it down
until
the mixture has enough pectin to jell. This can be a little tricky. If
you
mix it with a fruit juice such as chokecherry that has little or no
natural
pectin in it, you will want to boil this mixture down to approximately
the
same volume as that of the pectin that you put in. If you mix it with
high-pectin fruit such as wild grapes, you might only have to boil it
down
a little. Boiling the fruit-pectin mixture will not harm the flavor
unless
it cooks to the bottom of the pan, which will not happen if you keep
stirring it as it boils. (An overcooked or burnt flavor is generally the
result of cooking the jam for too long only after the sugar has been
added.) I like to use liquid pectin instead of water to cover fruits such
as currants or wild cherries when I boil them to extract the juice. After
boiling down a little bit, such juice often has enough pectin to jell. If
it is cooled down, the pectin concentration of the juice can be
determined
using the alcohol test described above. One great thing about apple
pectin
is that it can be used to dilute or balance the flavors of certain fruits
that are not tart enough to make superb jam by themselves, such as
elderberry and chokecherry.

When using homemade pectin, you can't just follow the proportions found
on
the chart in a Sure-Jell packet; you have to understand something about
what makes jelly jell. Basically, there are two factors involved in this:
the concentration of sugar and the concentration of pectin. Too little of
either one, and you end up with syrup. It is possible to compensate for a
little less sugar with more pectin, or vice-versa - but you can only
stray
from the recommended ratios a little bit. The most common reason that
people have batches that do not jell is because they want to add less
sugar
than the recipe calls for. If you are going to make jam or jelly, you may
as well accept right now that these confections are mostly sugar; that
way,
hopefully, you will avoid this temptation.

When you reckon that your fruit-pectin mixture is about right, mix in
sugar
at a ratio of about 5 cups of fruit-pectin (or juice) to 7 cups of sugar.
Stir constantly - especially with jam - to keep it from burning to the
bottom of the pan. After the jelly comes to a full, rolling boil, let it
do
so for about a minute. Then, if everything has been done right, it should
be ready to pour into jars. If you are not confident, however, this is
the
stage for the final jelly test. Turn the heat down low when the boiling
begins. Dip a large spoon into the mixture and then hold it over the pot
sideways. If the last jelly falls off the spoon in a sheet rather than a
drop, or if you get a drop that hangs down bulging at the bottom and
doesn't fall (this happens especially with wooden spoons), then you're in
business. If the jelly passes this test in either way, bring it briefly
to
a vigorous boil on high heat. Here you will find yet another indicator of
whether it will jell or not. It will not just boil; it will boil up, get
foamy, and probably make you scared that it will boil over. (If you don't
turn the heat off soon enough, it will boil over.) This is when you pour
the jam into clean mason jars and cover with clean lids. Turn the jars
upside-down for a minute or two to sterilize the lids, right the jars,
and
try to ignore them for a few hours while they set. (Note that home
canning
of jam and jelly is not dangerous, and you do not need to sterilize the
jars in a boiling-water bath or use a pressure canner!)

Hopefully this doesn't make the whole process seem harder than it is.
Like
many skills, once you learn how, it's a piece of cake. It may be
encouraging to know that I never use the alcohol test anymore, and rarely
even rely on the last jelly test. After making a number of batches, you
can
tell just by looking at the jelly if it's going to jell.

Is it worth all this trouble just to make your jam from scratch? Trouble?
There's no trouble when I do it - just a lot of fun. And that's what it's
all about.

Be sure to a look at Sam Thayer's book:
The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing
Edible Wild Plants
--
Peace, Om

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