Apple jelly failure

[beetiger]

I do not seem to be able to make apple jelly this year. I have tried to make several batches, and although one came out just fine, the rest haven't jelled and have just turned into hard-candy in a glass jar, of pretty much no value. Today's failed as well, but at least this time I've had the foresight to pour it on a silicon baking sheet and I'll hopefully have honey-apple-jasmine candy, in eadible pieces, not stuck in a glass jar.

But I'm really really confused. I've been doing this for years, and I've never had a batch fail before, and this is the fourth time. I must have forgotten something in the last two years, but I really can't figure out what.

I'm sad and confused by this.

Comments

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Doh. I should read before commenting. :)


but anyhow. I agree. Probably not enough pectin.

[marrionettegirl.livejournal.com]

hehe :)
i've had the overly viscus grape jelly thing happen to me many years ago, and it was my grandma who explained that if i didnt add enough, it would be like syrup! (which actualy it was great on pancakes!)

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

^_^ Yeah.. I have warm memories of my great grandmother and canning. I spent summers working at her farm when I was little. My favorite was blackberry jam. I'd spend hours out in the briars picking blackberries and then we'd make it into jam.

Until a few years ago, I had neighbors who had a really old orchard and I'd give them vegetables from my garden and they'd give me fruit from their trees. Anyhow, they had a quince tree and didn't even know the fruit was edible so they let me have all the fruit. Heh. In a year our friends went from saying, "Quince? What's that?" to, "Um... Are you going to make more of that quince butter this year?" :) (We gave a lot of it to friends (and our neighbors too, of course!) as christmas gifts. :) It's a little more coarse than apple butter and a little more tangy but it also has this undefinable spice flavor that we really enjoy. :)

[marrionettegirl.livejournal.com]

nmy grandmother and i would cann, in our garden, we had raz, black raz, and strawberries, but never enough for jelly, so we'd do ruduabega/strawberry jam, and friends of hers had an acre or so of berries! i'd spend weeks over there picking berries and grapes!! they made the bestest jellie!

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, presumably. But I had a lot of peels and cores in this batch, so I'm not sure how that's possible. I guess I'll go ahead and alcohol test the next batch of juice before I start, try and titrate it that way. That, or give up and wait for marmalade season. :P

[marrionettegirl.livejournal.com]

any kind of spreadable fruit is awesome!