# apple pectin



## lhalfcent (Mar 11, 2010)

hi all.. sorry i haven't been on lately.. been really busy.
canning, harvesting, washing raw wool, spinning knitting lol you get the picture.
anyway, i recently learned to make my own apple pectin from locally grown organic apples. 
Yesterday i took a bucket of plums given to me, quartered in about 4 medium macintosh apples and cooked it way down. Only added 1 cup sugar and a bit of lemon juice and didn't need any store bought pectin!!
so today i quartered up a peck of these macintosh's, added a healthy squirt of lemon juice and added water just barely covering the apples. then got it to a rolling boil then reduced the heat to medium low and it reduced nicely!
now i am letting it cool so i can sieve out any skin chunks which are only a little bit, then i am going to simmer another 30 minutes to reduce more then can for use in jelly and jam's later when ready.
it really works! 
anyone else here do that? artydance:


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

lhalfcent said:


> hi all.. sorry i haven't been on lately.. been really busy.
> canning, harvesting, washing raw wool, spinning knitting lol you get the picture.
> anyway, i recently learned to make my own apple pectin from locally grown organic apples.
> Yesterday i took a bucket of plums given to me, quartered in about 4 medium macintosh apples and cooked it way down. Only added 1 cup sugar and a bit of lemon juice and didn't need any store bought pectin!!
> ...


Yes and no . I don't use pectin in jams, never really heard of it until I started talking to you guys up north.

Anything that may need a bit of help to thicken I add a few apples to.


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Must be slow here. I have never heard of this. So instead of using products like Dutch gel or Certo you make jelly as you normally would but toss in some apples? 


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

lilmissy0740 said:


> Must be slow here. I have never heard of this. So instead of using products like Dutch gel or Certo you make jelly as you normally would but toss in some apples?
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Survival Forum


That's how commercial pectin is made, you boil down apple cores and skin. Apple is a natural thickening agent.


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

So that is what you do when you need pectin? Boil it down?


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

lilmissy0740 said:


> So that is what you do when you need pectin? Boil it down?
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Survival Forum


That's how I've seen it done. Usually though you just toss in some grated apple to thicken up whatever you're doing.


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## lhalfcent (Mar 11, 2010)

yes boil down the apples.
for example.. many recipes say use green granny apples. but i find any apple does well including crabapples.
so what i did was i was given macintoshes.. so i took about 8 of them and washed and quartered them and put them in a pot. seeds, skins the whole shebang. then added a good squirt of lemon juice to keep it from turning brown. 
then added water just enough to cover them. too much water takes too long to reduce.
bring to a good boil then turn down to a simmer and let it cook away. 
it will get very very thick. you need to stir it every once in a while. 
once it is very very thick take off the burner and let cool.
when cool take out any remaining seeds or chunks that didn't dissolve.
if you want to can it for later use bring it back to a boil and put in hot jars then water bath for about 5 mins or so.
I froze mine and it was enough at this amount to fill halfway two one gallon freezer bags. I labled them and threw them in the freezer. didn't bring it back to boil at all once cooled just put them in the bags. 
one of these bag amounts will can like 12 jars of jelly or jam. 
i hope that helps.


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

So, what did I do wrong? I made crabapple jelly. Read that I didn't need to use pectin, so I didn't. It is crabapple syrup. Didn't set up.

That was 2 years ago, and the first time I ever attempted to make jelly. Since then, I have made sour cherry, grape, and strawberry jellies. But used pectin and worked fine.
Last year, there were no crabapples. We are planning to pick crabapples today and try again. Any advice? The plan was to just use pectin like our other jelly. I'd really like to not use store bought stuff though.

Anybody have a crabapple jelly recipe that you'd care to share?


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## ClemKadiddlehopper (Aug 15, 2014)

Take a look at these. They answer all your questions.


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Thanks for the info lhalfcent. That's going in yet recipe book.


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

ClemKadiddlehopper said:


> Take a look at these. They answer all your questions.


Thanks. And I love your name!


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

not all crabapples have sufficient pectin content.


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