365: Day 147, Lazy Sunday Morning
I slept late, fed the cats, then made myself a breakfast of hot biscuits with three different jellies that I made yesterday - two batches of grape jelly & one batch of apple jelly. I decided that my favourite jelly was the one I had been the most worried about, as it hadn't set yet by the time I went to bed. But this morning it is beautifully set, everything a jelly should be, and so tasty! The one that set easily is a bit hard to spread, and not so toothsome. The difference between the batches is that with the first one (the one I worried about) I used a recipe for jelly using grape juice you made yourself, which had less pectin per cup of juice (five cups juice, six cups sugar, 1.75 oz pectin). The second batch followed a recipe for jelly made with bottled juice, and had more pectin & sugar per cup of juice (thee cups juice, four and a half cups sugar, 1.75 oz pectin). I made both batches with high-quality, unfiltered bottled concord grape juice from Trader Joe's, and I suppose this means that it is better off being treated like home made juice. I used TJ's Gravenstein apple juice for the apple jelly - and treated it like bottled juice, 4 cups juice, 5 cups sugar, 1.75 oz pectin.
I've made the jellies for a garage sale the shelter is having next month - there's a big vet bill to pay :-( I've never made jelly before, I've always made jam, but fruit is still too expensive for that to be financially feasible for the garage sale, though I am going to make marmalade as oranges are cheap. Jelly turns out to be incredibly easy to make: just stir the pectin into the juice, bring the juice to a rolling boil, add the sugar, and boil at a high heat, while stirring vigorously, for one minute. Then turn it off, skim off the scum, and jar it. I used the inversion method - spoon the jelly into hot clean jars, top with hot clean lids, seal the ring, then turn the jar upside down a few times so that the near-boiling jelly gets all over the inside of the jar. Then put it down & wait for it to cool, the lid will seal with an audible POP if it works, which it always does if you use new lids.
365: Day 147, Lazy Sunday Morning
I slept late, fed the cats, then made myself a breakfast of hot biscuits with three different jellies that I made yesterday - two batches of grape jelly & one batch of apple jelly. I decided that my favourite jelly was the one I had been the most worried about, as it hadn't set yet by the time I went to bed. But this morning it is beautifully set, everything a jelly should be, and so tasty! The one that set easily is a bit hard to spread, and not so toothsome. The difference between the batches is that with the first one (the one I worried about) I used a recipe for jelly using grape juice you made yourself, which had less pectin per cup of juice (five cups juice, six cups sugar, 1.75 oz pectin). The second batch followed a recipe for jelly made with bottled juice, and had more pectin & sugar per cup of juice (thee cups juice, four and a half cups sugar, 1.75 oz pectin). I made both batches with high-quality, unfiltered bottled concord grape juice from Trader Joe's, and I suppose this means that it is better off being treated like home made juice. I used TJ's Gravenstein apple juice for the apple jelly - and treated it like bottled juice, 4 cups juice, 5 cups sugar, 1.75 oz pectin.
I've made the jellies for a garage sale the shelter is having next month - there's a big vet bill to pay :-( I've never made jelly before, I've always made jam, but fruit is still too expensive for that to be financially feasible for the garage sale, though I am going to make marmalade as oranges are cheap. Jelly turns out to be incredibly easy to make: just stir the pectin into the juice, bring the juice to a rolling boil, add the sugar, and boil at a high heat, while stirring vigorously, for one minute. Then turn it off, skim off the scum, and jar it. I used the inversion method - spoon the jelly into hot clean jars, top with hot clean lids, seal the ring, then turn the jar upside down a few times so that the near-boiling jelly gets all over the inside of the jar. Then put it down & wait for it to cool, the lid will seal with an audible POP if it works, which it always does if you use new lids.