Rebecca Fussner wrote:
The first recipe is 7 tart apples, 4 cups H20, 2 TBS lemon juice. Quarter apples, toss all in a stainless or enamel sauce pan, bring to a boil over high heat cover, reduce heat simmer for 40 minutes strain through sieve to remove solids , then jelly bag or layers of cheesecloth for clarity ladle into hot jars and water-bath 10 minutes. Suggested use for each 1 cup of fruit chopped add 1 cup pecttin. #((This recipe is from page 46 of the complete book of small batch preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard second edition revised and expanded. Firefly books.)) credit where credit is due.
WHAT I DID. Washed grape thinings, take off big stems I left the little ones on the fruit because I'm lazy like that. Dropped the fruit in the pot and started squishing with potato masher when there was enough juice to keep from scorching the bottom grapes I turned the heat on low. I went back and squished more every few minutes about 40 Ish went by and I took it off the stove and began pressing it through a collander because my grapes were tiny and I did not want to loose the juice. Then followed the rest of the first recipe. EXCEPT...I went with jelly not jam equal amounts of juice and pectin. It looks like jelly holding the jar sideways it does not slide to the lid but it is not hard candy in a jar. the peach might be I'm pretty sure I over cooked it.
Thank you so much for this! I've printed it out for future reference. I have a recipe for apple pectin from apple scraps...somewhere in my binder of "this would be a cool recipe and really useful someday" recipes. I will compare yours to mine and make them both work.
On a side note about your cranberry pectin keeping your jellies red--I had a thought...what would be the result if you simmered some cinnamon sticks with your cranberries? I wonder if the finished flavor would be divine or ick?