Jelly?

My wife and I went and picked Nanking cherries this morning. It looks like she is making jelly.

That sounds good. I was just thinking yesterday how my Mama used to seal her jam with wax.

Not to hijack the thread.......but related........two recent efforts.....one blackberry and one a peach/plum........followed directions EXACTLY......and both failed to set up. Both a thick oozing sludge vs a stiff jelly or jam. Any ideas what we did wrong?

You followed the directions. I do better if I treat them more like guidelines.

Didn't boil long enough. The instruction time in the sure gell packet is a starting point not exact.

Reason, the pectin content of the fruit varies by ripeness. The riper the less pectin. You can adjust pectin with experience by including more half ripe fruit, fruit skins, etc.

So once the juice is hot and sugar added bring it to a hard rolling boil that can't be stirred down. Add pectin and start the clock. At time dip your spoon in and lift it out sideways. The jelly should just sheet off the spoon not run or drip. If not boil longer until it does.

Another check is your foam skimming. It should set up when put on a cool or cold plate.

When I made jelly I'd add a couple handfuls of crabapples to the mix, also included unripe fruit, very high in natural pectin, I never used sure gel.

That's the old way before store-bought pectin was available. I've done it but got better things to do than stir a pot all day.

On the blackberry you want 10-15% of the fruit still red.

i never get mad if the blackberry don't jell

If it don't gel just call it syrup, like it was what you meant to do...

Have to hard boil it, make sure your pot is not to big for the burner, and you have to stir non stop once you put sugar in, all the way through the rolling boil, and your pectin needs to be fresh, never had a problem.

On the boiling part, that is confusing. Instructions say to dump in sugar, then return to boil and boil EXACTLY one minute. Exactly???? Exactly isn't possible when the start time is subjective.

Also, had conflicting advice on the peach plum jam. One said to include lemon juice (an acid). One didn't. We left it out.....but boiled it EXACTLY one minute.......more or less.

And granted....we don't each much white sugar these days, so may be sensitive to it, but normally a jelly or jam ought to be sweet, but the overwhelming taste is the flavor of the fruit. First sensation of this stuff is it is just super sweet.......fruit flavored sugary syrup. But sugar and fruit amounts are to the recipe..

Hard boil is a must for the jelly or jams to set well. I had to do a small batch over years back and re cook it.

I like thick jam not syrupy ice cream type topping. The flavor is still good but the texture is missing. Some I keep for ice cream but really love the heavy paste type jams.

Just like I prefer my lures.

It is best to over cook a batch then under cook it. If it isn't setting pretty quick when putting it in your jars then it won't get much better after it cools.

I could make some fine jam from those cherries. I much prefer jams. It is a shame to waste the whole cherry for some juice squeezings.

We will make a batch of jelly and a batch jam. It will be way more than we need.

Old pectin was used probably