It’s the time of year when we are all looking for ways to preserve the lovely fresh fruits and berries we are enjoying. I’ve made my own pectin before from crab apples. Here’s how:
Apple Pectin
3 pounds sliced, washed tart crabapples
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
4 cups water
Wash, but don’t peel apples.
Add four cups of water and two tablespoons of lemon juice.
Boil the mixture until it reduces almost in half (about 30 to 45 minutes), then
Strain it through cheesecloth or a jelly bag.
Boil the juice for another 20 minutes
If you want to test your pectin you can do so with denatured alcohol (just don’t taste it after you add it though, it’s poisonous). You add 1 T alcohol to 1 tsp of your pectin water. If it is high in pectin it will form a gelatinou material. It was kinda fun doing this and seeing it gel up. You can test the pectin level of any fruit using this method. If it’s ready to go, pour it into sanitized jars, and seal them to store in the refrigerator, freezer or process in a water bath.
Knowing how much to use depends on the fruit you are trying to jam. Some fruit have more natural pectin than others. The more ripe the fruit is, the lower the pectin levels. See this page for the pectin content of fruits.
To test, remove a spoonful of the jam, and hold an ice cube against the bottom of the spoon to cool the jam. If the spoonful sets to your liking, you can fill the jars, seal them . If the spoonful does not set, add more pectin, cook and try again.
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