How To Make Jellies

This calls for considerably more fruit than is needed in making jam, and the choice of fruit is more limited. Only distinctively flavoured fruit such as redcurrants, quinces, blackcurrants, blackberries, elderberries, plums and green gages are really suitable. These are often combined with apples to give a better set.

Equipment
The equipment recommended for jam making is equally suitable for jellies.

Jelly bag- In addition, you will need a jelly bag for straining the fruit pulp. Thick flannel jelly bags, sold separately or attached to special drip stands, can be obtained from kitchen equipment shops, but it is cheaper to make your own. A homemade jelly bag can easily be improvised from a square of cotton or flannel, or from two or three layers of butter muslin or cheesecloth. Whether
you use a bag or cloth, it should be thoroughly scalded before use. Tie each corner of the cloth to the legs of an upturned kitchen stool. Place a bowl or basin – earthenware, glass or plastic – beneath the cloth or jelly bag to catch the juice as it drips through.

Jars- Ordinary jam jars are suitable for jellies, provided they are clean and un-chipped. Small glass jars, such as those that previously contained fish and meat paste, mustard and other relishes, are ideal for jellies if first sterilised. With their attractive shapes full of glowing jelly, they can be set directly on the table.

Making jellies
1. Preparing the fruit
Fruit with distinctive flavours and colours are preferable, and they should contain enough pectin and acid to give a good set. Wild fruit or inexpensive varieties of cultivated fruit are ideal, since you will need quite a lot of them to make a worthwhile quantity of jelly. The yield of jelly from a given amount of fruit is considerably less than the yield of jam. Suitable fruit, which must be fresh
and just ripe, include crab and cooking apples, blackberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, loganberries, quinces and redcurrants. Used on their own, cooking apples make a delicately flavoured jelly high in pectin. It is a perfect base for herb jellies. The apples’ juice is also mixed with that of other fruit to improve the setting quality of those jellies. Successful jelly cannot be made from cherries, pears or strawberries, because the additional pectin and acid needed for setting would overpower the fruit flavour. Before cooking, pick over the fruit and discard any that are overripe or of doubtful quality. Wash and drain thoroughly and chop large fruit into chunks, cutting out any bruised parts. There is no need to either hull or stalk berries, or to peel and core apples, as the fruit pulp will be strained later on in the process.

2.Softening the fruit
Simmer the fruit in the preserving pan with the correct amount of water. Very little water will be needed with juicy fruit such as loganberries and blackberries, but hard fruit such as apples and quinces need enough water to cover them in the pan. Testing for pectin Carry out a pectin test at this stage. If the pectin content is low, simmer the juice for longer to evaporate more of thewater, or add previously prepared pectin-rich juice.