Using homemade apple pectin

16 years ago

I was making apple butter yesterday, decided to try making pectin again with the cores and peels (last batch sat in fridge a couple of days uncovered so I threw it out). So, I used 1.75 lbs of peels and cores, 3.5C water, and 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp bottled lemon juice trying to follow Small Batch page 46 recipe. Let it sit overnight but it didn't get any clearer, so decided to can it today. Alcohol test worked (loose set, strings hanging from fork) on cold pectin, and then I reduced it from 3C to 2C while getting it hot enough to process so I figured it would have gotten firmer, though I didn't cool it and test it again.

I canned 12 oz of it, and used 8oz with 1 lb of frozen strawberries, 1C of sugar, and 1 tsp of lemon juice (thawed the berries with the sugar, then cooked down, mashed, added pectin and lemon juice and boiled hard). So I don't really know why the strawberry jam didn't set up. I used the saucer test and it seemed fine, though not really firm (I didn't want it like gum, the way my blackberry jam turned out), but even the little bit I put in the fridge hasn't set up. It's more of a "slurry". I figured on getting maybe a pint and a half since 1 lb of berries would normally yield a pint (according to Linda Ziedrich in Joy of Jams), but I only got 15-16 oz and it's runny.

According to Linda Z, 1C of pectin should work with *3* lbs of fruit. Ellie Topp just says to use 1C of fruit (or juice) for 1C of pectin and 3/4C sugar, no more lemon juice. All the recipes in Small Batch call for commercial pectin.

So, when using homemade pectin, what ratio of pectin to (low-pectin) fruit *do* you use? Did I not have enough sugar (Linda Z's small batch of strawberry jam uses 1C for 1lb fresh berries, no added pectin) since I probably had a couple of cups after thawing and mashing? Or did I not have enough lemon juice?

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Comments (3)

pixie_lou
16 years ago
For my homemade pectin - for the pectin test, I was told that you had to be able to pick up the mass of pectin in a glop - that if it was falling thru the tines of the fork, to continue boiling it down.

My recipe calls for 4-6 Tablespoons of pectin per cup of fruit. Then sugar equal to the amount of fruit and pectin.
2ajsmama
Original Author
16 years ago
So my pectin was probably OK, like I said I reduced it from 3C to 2C *after* testing it (I didn't want to cool it down to test again before canning, though I suppose I could have put a little in the fridge, pulled the rest off the heat while I tested it and then it wouldn't reduce much more bringing it back up again). I'll test it straight out of the jar before I use the rest of it.

Thanks - it looks like 12 oz of pectin may be enough for 4-6C of fruit, or 1 batch of jam. So at least I canned it in the right size jar!

You *do* mean sugar = fruit + pectin? So 1C fruit + 4 T (which equals 1/4C) pectin would use 1 1/4C sugar? Not 3/4C that Small Batch calls for? The Joy of Jams uses that as a "rule of thumb" but says you need more for high-pectin fruits, less for low-pectin. I know strawberries are low-pectin (esp. frozen ones that were probably really ripe when frozen), but I don't know if adding pectin (an ounce or 2 at a time, testing for gel) made it into a "high-pectin" mixture so I should have added more sugar?

The berries were frozen with no sugar (Trader Joe's), and may still have had quite a bit of water in them even though I thawed them in a colander and cooked/mashed them with sugar before even adding the pectin. It may work out better with fresh berries.
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pixie_lou
16 years ago
When I boil the pectin, I pull out about a teaspoon, put it in a little bowl and place the bowl in the freezer - in the ice bin. I can then test it in the alcohol in about a minute. I don't remove the pot from the stove when I'm doing the pectin test.

I haven't experimented with the pectin and fruit and sugar ratios. I routinely reduce my sugar by about 20% when making jam. But I like my jam thin - I like it to ooze into the nooks and crannies of my English Muffin or into the nooks of my waffle.

I have also made peace with the fact that it takes a lot of sugar to make jam. I don't use artificial sweetener. And I decided to make my own pectin so I *know* what is in my jam - so I don't have to use commercial pectin that has been chemically processed.