Jellied Products

  • Jellies are usually made by cooking fruit juice with sugar. Jelly should exist clear or translucent and firm plenty to hold its shape when turned out of the container.
  • Jams are thick, sweetness spreads, which will hold their shape, just are less firm than jelly. They are made from crushed or chopped fruits and sugar.
  • Conserves are jams fabricated from a mixture of fruits, peculiarly when they include citrus fruits, basics, raisins or coconut.
  • Preserves are made of small, whole fruits or compatible-size pieces of fruits in a articulate, thick, slightly jellied syrup.
  • Marmalades ofttimes incorporate citrus fruits and are soft fruit jellies containing small pieces of fruit or skin, evenly suspended in the transparent jelly.

Homemade blueberry jam.

Homemade blueberry jam.
Adair Hoover, Clemson HGIC

Common Ingredients

For proper texture, jellied fruit products crave the right combination of fruit, pectin, acid and carbohydrate.

Fruit: Fruit gives each spread its unique flavor and color. It besides supplies the water to dissolve the rest of the necessary ingredients and furnishes some or all of the pectin and acid. Expert-quality, flavorful fruits make the best jellied products. Commercially canned or frozen fruit preserved in its ain juice may be used to make jellied products, simply pectin must be added. If yous preserve your own fruit, use ¼ slightly under-ripe and ¾ fully ripe fruit. Preserve the fruit in its ain juice and note how much sugar is added to allow for that in the jelly recipe.

Pectin: Pectin is a substance in fruits that forms a gel if it is in the correct combination with acid and carbohydrate. All fruits contain some pectin, but some must be combined with fruits high in pectin or with commercial pectin products to obtain gels.  Because fully ripened fruit has less pectin, one-fourth of the fruit used in making jellies without added pectin should be under-ripe. The utilize of commercial pectin simplifies the process, but jelly fabricated without added pectin contains less sugar and tastes fruitier. Follow the manufacturer's directions for using commercial pectin and exercise not interchange liquid and powdered pectins.

Acrid: The proper level of acrid is critical to gel germination. If there is also little acid, the gel will never gear up; if there is likewise much acid, the gel volition lose liquid (weep). For fruits low in acrid, add lemon juice or other acrid ingredients every bit directed. Commercial pectin products contain acids that help to ensure gelling.

Sugar: Sugar serves every bit a preserving agent, contributes flavor and aids in gelling. Granulated white sugar is the usual blazon of sugar for jelly or jam. Corn syrup and honey may be used to replace office of the carbohydrate in recipes, just too much will mask the fruit season and alter the gel structure. Use tested recipes for replacing sugar with dearest and corn syrup. Do not try to reduce the amount of sugar in traditional recipes. Too piffling sugar prevents gelling and may permit yeast and mold growth. Tested recipes must be used to make jellies without added sugar, and these products usually must be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.

Pectin & Acid Content of Common Fruits Used to Brand Jelly

Group I: If not overripe, has enough natural pectin and acid for gel formation with just added sugar – Apples (sour), Blackberries (sour), Crabapples Cranberries, Currants, Gooseberries, Grapes (Eastern Concord), Lemons, Loganberries, Plums (non Italian), Quinces

Group II: Low in natural acrid or pectin and may need improver of either acid or pectin – Apples (ripe), Blackberries (ripe), Cherries (sour), Chokecherries, Elderberries, Grapefruit, Grape Juice, bottled (Eastern Concord), Grapes (California), Loquats, Oranges

Group III: E'er needs added acid, pectin or both – Apricots, Blueberries, Figs, Grapes (Western Concord), Guavas, Peaches, Pears, Plums (Italian), Raspberries, Strawberries

Equipment & Containers

  • A big 8- or x-quart bucket is recommended because jellies and jams have a tendency to boil over. A heavy metal is best considering it allows even estrus distribution.
  • A jelly bag or suitable cloth is needed when extracting juice for jelly. Firm unbleached muslin or cotton wool flannel with the napped side turned in, or four thicknesses of closely woven cheesecloth may be used. Jelly numberless or cloths should be damp when extracting the juice.
  • A jelly, candy, or deep-fat thermometer tin exist used to determine doneness in jellied products without added pectin.
  • A boiling water bath canner is necessary for processing all fruit spreads. A deep cooking pot with a rack may be used for a canner if it'due south deep enough for ane or two inches of boiling water above the tops of jars. Be certain the pot has a close-plumbing fixtures lid.

Preventing Spoilage of Jellies

Fifty-fifty though sugar helps preserve jellies and jams, molds can grow on the surface of these products. Research now indicates that the mold people usually scrape off the surface of jellies may not exist equally harmless equally information technology seems. Mycotoxins take been found in some jars of jelly having surface mold growth. Mycotoxins are known to cause cancer in animals; their effects on humans are still beingness researched. Considering of possible mold contamination, alkane or wax seals are no longer recommended for whatever sweet spread, including jellies.

All jellied products should exist processed in a boiling water bath to prevent mold growth. To process in a boiling h2o bath, pour the humid product into a hot sterilized canning jar, leaving ¼-inch head-space. Wipe the jar rim, and close with a treated canning lid and screw ring. Place on a rack in a canner filled with boiling water. The h2o should embrace the jars by at to the lowest degree one inch. Embrace the canner. Bring the water back to a eddy; boil gently for 5 minutes. Remove the jars to a protected surface and cool, abroad from drafts, undisturbed for 12 hours.

Full general Procedures for Making Jams, Preserves & Marmalades

  1. Employ one-half-pint canning jars and pretreated lids.
  2. Check jars and lids. Discard any cracked or chipped jars and any lids with blemished sealing surfaces. Wash in hot, soapy h2o; rinse. Boil jars for 10 minutes to sterilize. Go along jars hot.
  3. Launder and rinse all fruits thoroughly earlier cooking. Practice not soak. For best flavor, use fully ripe fruit when making jellied products with added pectin. For recipes without added pectin, use only-ripe fruit. Remove stems, skins and pits from fruit; cutting into pieces and shell. For berries, remove stems and blossoms and beat. Seedy berries may exist put through a sieve or nutrient manufactory.
  4. Combine ingredients and cook in small batches, i recipe at a fourth dimension, in a large, heavy, eight- to 10-quart saucepot.
  5. Stir fruit mixture over low heat until sugar dissolves. Then boil apace for a articulate-finished product. As the fruit mixture begins to thicken, stir frequently to forbid sticking and scorching.
  6. If not adding pectin, test for doneness using one of the methods described below. For a softer product, shorten the cooking time; for a firmer product, lengthen it.
  7. If liquid or powdered pectin is used, follow manufacturer's directions. The method of combining ingredients varies with the form of pectin used. Pectin, acid and doneness tests are non necessary with added pectin. For a softer production, utilize ¼ to ½ cup more fruit or juice. For a firmer product, use ¼ to ½ cup less fruit or juice.
  8. Before filling jars, skim off foam that forms from the boiling process. The add-on of ¼ teaspoon butter or margarine during cooking helps cutting down on the foam formed.
  9. To fill the jars, cascade hot fruit mixture into hot sterilized jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace.
  10. Process jams, preserves and conserves in a boiling water bath for the length of fourth dimension specified in the recipe. If no processing instructions are given, process for 5 minutes in sterile jars. If jars have not been sterilized, the filled jars should be processed 10 minutes, merely the added 5-minutes processing time may cause weak gels, especially if using low-pectin fruits.
  11. Let to cool undisturbed for 12 hours, then remove screw bands, carefully wipe the outside of the jar with a clean, damp cloth, and store in a dark, dry, cool identify. The shorter the storage time, the improve the production.

Altitude Adjustments: The processing times given for processing jellied fruit products are for altitudes of 0 to m feet. Most areas in South Carolina volition autumn within these altitudes. Add together 1 minute of processing and sterilizing time for each one thousand feet of additional altitude.

Making Jellies Without Added Pectin

To Extract Juice: Use only firm fruits naturally high in pectin. Select a mixture of about iii-quarters ripe and 1-quarter under-ripe fruit. Do non use commercially canned or frozen fruit juices; their pectin content is too depression. Wash all fruits thoroughly earlier cooking. Crush soft fruits or berries; cut firmer fruits into small pieces. Using the peels and cores adds pectin to the juice during cooking. Table 1 provides instructions and proportions for extracting juice from specific fruits. Put fruit and water (as instructed) in a large bucket and bring to a boil. Then simmer according to the times in Table 1 or until fruit is soft. Stir to prevent scorching. One pound of fruit should yield at least ane cup of articulate juice.

When fruit is tender, strain through a colander, and then strain through a double layer of cheesecloth or a jelly pocketbook. Allow juice to drip through, using a stand or colander to hold the bag. Pressing or squeezing the handbag or textile volition effect in cloudy jelly.

To Make Jelly: Apply no more than six to 8 cups of extracted fruit juice at a time. Double batches exercise not always gel properly.

  1. Measure juice and sugar. When a recipe is non available, endeavor using ¾ cups sugar for each 1 cup of juice. Put juice into a large saucepan and bring to a boil.
  2. Add together saccharide to juice. Add lemon juice or citric acrid if additional acrid is required.
  3. Test for doneness as instructed below.
  4. Remove jelly from estrus; quickly skim off foam.
  5. Pour apace into hot jars, leaving ¼-inch head space. Wipe jar rims, arrange lids and process in a humid h2o bath for 5 minutes.

Testing Pectin in the Juice

For jellies made without pectin, it is important to know whether there is enough natural pectin to form a gel. At that place are three ways of determining this.

Cooking Test: Measure ⅓ cup of juice and ¼ cup of saccharide into a small saucepan. Heat slowly, stirring constantly until all the sugar is dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil rapidly until it gives the sheeting test. Pour the jelly into a clean, hot jelly glass or a modest bowl and let it cool. If the cooled mixture is jelly-similar, your fruit juice will gel.

Alcohol Test: Add one teaspoon of juice to 1 table-spoon of rubbing alcohol. To mix, gently stir or shake the mixture in a closed container so that all the juice comes in contact with the alcohol. Exercise Not TASTE— the mixture is poisonous. Fruit high in pectin will form a solid jelly-similar mass that tin can exist picked up with a fork. If the juice clumps into several pocket-sized particles, in that location is non enough pectin for jelly.

Jelmeter Test: The jelmeter is a graduated drinking glass tube that measures the rate at which fruit juices flow through the tube. It gives a rough judge of the amount of pectin present in the juice and how much sugar should exist used.

Testing Acrid in the Juice

In that location is no abode test to determine the amount of acid nowadays. Just you can do a simple taste test for tartness by mixing i teaspoon lemon juice, 3 table-spoons water and ½ teaspoon saccharide. If your fruit juice does non gustatory modality as tart as this mixture, it is not tart enough. Add i tablespoon lemon juice or 1/8 teaspoon citric acrid to each cup of fruit juice.

Doneness Exam

The biggest problem in making jelly without added pectin is to know when information technology is done. It is particularly of import to remove the mixture from the oestrus before information technology is overcooked, as there is trivial that can be done to improve an overcooked mixture. Signs of overcooking are a change in color of the mixture and a taste or odor of caramelized sugar. When cooking jelly remember that it should exist boiled rapidly, non simmered.

Temperature Test: This is the most reliable of the doneness tests. First test the accuracy of the jelly or candy thermometer by placing it in humid h2o to see if it measures 212 °F. So place the thermometer in a vertical position into the humid jelly mixture and read at eye level. The bulb of the thermometer must exist completely covered with the jelly but must not touch the lesser of the saucepot. Use a jelly or processed thermometer and boil until mixture reaches 220 °F or eight °F above the boiling bespeak of water. Most areas in South Carolina would employ 220 °F, but at altitudes between 1000 and 2000 feet, boil until the mixture reaches 218 °F.

Sheet or Spoon Test: Dip a cool metallic spoon into the boiling jelly mixture. Heighten the spoon about 12 inches above the pan (out of steam). Plough the spoon so the liquid runs off the side. When the mixture first starts to boil, the drops will be calorie-free and syrupy. As the syrup continues to eddy, the drops will get heavier and volition drop off the spoon ii at a time. The jelly is done when the syrup forms two drops that menstruation together and sheet or hang off the edge of the spoon.

Refrigerator/Freezer Test: Cascade a small-scale corporeality of boiling jelly on a plate, and put it in the freezing compartment of a fridge for a few minutes. If the mixture gels, information technology should be done. During the test, the residual of the jelly mixture should be removed from the heat.

Jellies Made With Added Pectin

Jellies fabricated from powdered or liquid pectin are prepared differently from those made without added pectin. Exist certain to follow manufacturer's directions advisedly. When commercial pectin is used, it is not necessary to test for pectin, acid or doneness. All-ripe fruit may be used for all-time season.

Jellied Products Without Added Sugar

Jellied products can be made without adding sugar or by adding less carbohydrate than in a regular recipe. This cannot be done by leaving the saccharide out of the regular jelly recipes. Four methods can be used every bit shown below. Follow the directions on the modified pectin box or in a no-sugar recipe exactly. Alterations in the recipe could result in product failures. These products practice not take sugar as their preservative and must exist processed or stored as directed. Some need longer processing in a boiling h2o bathroom and some need refrigeration.

Special Modified Pectins: This is a quick, easy manner to make lower saccharide jellied products that tin can be stored on the pantry shelf until opened. These pectins are not the same as regular pectin. Expect for packages that say "light," "less sugar" or "no sugar needed" in the label. Specific recipes and directions are listed on the package insert. Follow these advisedly for the brand of pectin you are using.

Regular Pectin With Special Recipes: These special recipes have been formulated then that no added sugar is needed. However, each package of regular pectin does comprise some sugar. Artificial sweetener is frequently added.

Recipes Using Gelatin: Some recipes use unflavored gelatin as the thickener for the jelly or jam. Artificial sweetener is oft added.

Long-Eddy Methods: Boiling fruit lurid for extended periods of time volition make a product thicken and resemble a jam, preserve or fruit butter. Artificial sweetener may be added.

Remaking Runny Jelly & Jam

Remake a trial batch using one cup of jelly or jam first. Measure jelly or jam to be remade. Don't remake more than 8 cups at one fourth dimension.

To Remake Cooked Jelly Without Added Pectin: If the fruit juice was non acid enough, add one½ teaspoons lemon juice per cup jelly before boiling. Heat the jelly to humid and boil until the jellying point is reached. Remove jelly from oestrus, skim, pour immediately into sterilized hot containers and seal and procedure for 5 minutes.

To Remake Cooked Jelly or Jam With Powdered Pectin: For each loving cup of jelly or jam, measure 2 tablespoons sugar, ane tablespoon h2o and 1½ teaspoons of powdered pectin. (Stir the package contents well before measuring.) Mix the pectin and water and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add jelly or jam and sugar. Stir thoroughly. Bring to a full rolling boil over high estrus, stirring constantly. Boil hard ½ minute. Remove from heat, quickly skim foam off jelly and make full hot, sterile jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Adjust new lids and process in a boiling water bath for at least 5 minutes or for time specified in the recipe.

To Remake Cooked Jelly or Jam With Liquid Pectin: For each cup of jelly or jam, measure iii tablespoons sugar, 1½ teaspoons lemon juice and 1½ teaspoons of liquid fruit pectin. Identify jelly or jam in a saucepan and bring to a eddy, stirring constantly. Quickly add the sugar, lemon juice and pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard for 1 infinitesimal. Remove from heat. Apace skim off foam and fill up hot, sterile jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Wipe jar rims. Arrange new lids and process in a boiling h2o bath for five minutes.

To Remake Uncooked Jelly or Jam With Liquid Pectin: In a bowl, mix jelly or jam and for each 1 cup of jelly or jam add together three tablespoons carbohydrate and 1½ teaspoons lemon juice. Stir well until sugar is dissolved (virtually 3 minutes). Add together ane½ teaspoons liquid pectin per cup of jelly or jam and stir until well composite (nearly iii minutes). Pour into clean containers. Cover with tight lids. Let stand up in refrigerator until fix. Then store in refrigerator or freezer.

To Remake Uncooked Jelly or Jam With Powdered Pectin: In a bowl, mix jelly or jam and two tablespoons carbohydrate for each cup of jelly or jam. Stir well until dissolved (about 3 minutes). Measure one tablespoon water and 1 ½ teaspoons powdered pectin for each cup of jelly or jam. Place in small-scale saucepan and place over low heat, stirring, until the powdered pectin is dissolved. Add together to the sugar and fruit mixture and stir until thoroughly blended (about 2 to 3 minutes). Pour into make clean containers. Cover with tight lids. Let stand in fridge until set. And so store in refrigerator or freezer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should cooked jelly be made in minor batches? If a larger quantity of juice is used, longer humid is needed causing loss of flavor, darkening of jelly, and toughening of jelly.

Should jelly be boiled slowly or speedily? Information technology should exist boiled rapidly since long, deadening boiling destroys the pectin in the fruit juice.

What exercise I exercise if there's mold on my jellied fruit product? Discard all of the production. Mycotoxins take been establish in some jars of jelly having surface mold growth. Mycotoxins are known to crusade cancer in animals; their effects on humans are still being researched.

Why did my jellied fruit product ferment, and what do I do? Jellied fruit products may ferment considering of yeast growth. This can occur if the production is improperly processed and sealed, or if the sugar content is too low. Fermented fruit products accept a bellicose gustation. Discard them.

Table 1. Instructions & Proportions for Extracting Juice from Specific Fruits

Fruit Cups of H2o to exist Added Per Pound of Fruit Minutes to Simmer Fruit before Extracting Juice Ingredients Added to Each Cup of Strained Juice Yield from iv Cups of Juice (Half-Pints)
Sugar (Cups) Lemon Juice (Tsp.)
Apples i xx-25 ¾ 1½ (opt) 4-five
Blackberries None or ¼ 5-ten ¾-one None 7-8
Crab Apples 1 20-25 1 None 4-5
Grapes None or ¼ v-ten ¾-1 None 8-9
Plums ½ 15-20 ¾ None 8-9

For more information on making jellies & jams, see HGIC 3200, Jelly & Jam Recipes. For information on using a water bath canner, see HGIC 3040, Canning Foods at Home.

Originally published 06/99