Monday, August 27, 2012

Food: Making Pectin, er Jelly, er Syrup

I've been saving apple peels for the last couple of weeks.


I followed the instructions to make Pectin.  I was planning to can it, but I'm still not sure about the conversion rate between homemade liquid pectin and commercially produced powdered pectin.  So I wasn't really sure if it made more sense to can in pint-sized jars or half-pint jars.  So I decided to make Apple Jelly instead.

The 4 pounds of apple peels turned into 10.5 cups of salmon-colored pectin.


I added 7 cups of honey which is a little less than the recipe called for.  Then I boiled the mixture for nearly 3 hours and it was still very runny.

So I gave up and canned 9 1/2 pints of Apple Syrup.  I think it's a beautiful color and it's quite tasty.


Earlier in the day, I also made 5 pints of Applesauce using a different recipe than last time.  So Hubba has to decide which sauce recipe he likes better.  ;-)

I have plenty of apples left, so I should have the opportunity to try pectin or jelly again.

8 comments:

PF CHANGS said...

I would love to try some. Are you selling any?

Racheal - Maven in training said...

Oh yum, I always used the cores and peels for pectin with good success. Apple jelly with honey sounds good, i have never tried preserving with honey. You will have to let me know how it tastes compared to the sugar vaiety.

Spinster Beth said...

Hmmm apple syrple .... bet that would be good with lots of stuff!

Kathryn Ray said...

We already know it's good on ice cream. ;-)

Voie de Vie said...

I'm with Beth - apple syrup sounds great. I'd have tried it on ice cream, too. :) Depending on how sweet, it could work well in a sweet/sour dish.

And then, when all else fails, just make that big ole stack of pancakes and enjoy!

AC said...

Syrup sounds like a pretty sweet consolation prize (pun not really intended, but it works!)

MarmePurl said...

Beautiful Kathryn. I am sure it all is a delicious as it looks. Hmm...I have a half bushel of apples I was planning on making apple butter with...maybe I should rethink..

EMMA said...

I recently tried homemade pectin and honey for jam making but also ended up with syrup!