# made my first batch of canned jelly!



## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

So I was watching OHCs thread and my pressure canner arrived about a week ago, I was waiting for a good time to try it out! I wanted to do the jelly the same method I'll be doing meatloaf, so I did it pressure canning style and so far everything looks great! 

the jars are cooling, and tomorrow morning I think I'll open one and have it with some pancakes, or at the very minimum with some cinnamon raisin bread! 

Next up, meatloaf!!!


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Cool!

Meatloaf be great to, just be sure an use a wide mouth jar so it be easy ta get out!


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

yep!!! was hoping to get a box of those at Wally World today but they dont have them anymore, so I had to go to Ralphs. $18 a dozen, at first I thought I was getting taken, but I just looked on Amazon and they are more expensive than that even with my prime free shipping, plus I want to can meatloaf tomorrow so that's disqualified automatically.

Walmart had Kerr lids for 1.63 and 2.20 for regular and wide mouth respectively by the way, boxes of a dozen. I only have 6 dozen jars so far, and I'm about to mail some of those off to my sister so my nephew who needs food without High Fructose Corn Syrup can have some jelly that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, but I figured now that I'm actually starting the canning thing, I'm going to need more and more lids. Seemed like a good way to throw down 20 bucks that will be used for quite some time.

They also had Pectin for $5 a jar. I guess I better go get a bunch of those too, I got 2 today but at 47g used per 5 jars of jelly, that's going to get burned up FAST!


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Wow! I get new jars fer $8 a dozen er there bouts!

Somewhere I got a site what sells lids in bulk. I'll try an remember ta look it up fer yall. Was lots cheaper.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Dakine said:


> They also had Pectin for $5 a jar. I guess I better go get a bunch of those too, I got 2 today but at 47g used per 5 jars of jelly, that's going to get burned up FAST!


The advice below is too late in the season to help you this year but as you develop your canning skills for next year, then maybe you should think about making your own pectin.

Find a use for tart apples, then use the cores and scraps to make pectin. This is simply a variation of using apples scraps to make cider vinegar. Here though you make the pectin earlier in the season. If you have your own apples tree you can even give a marginal boost to production by harvesting some apples early for pectin production and thus allowing the tree to divert energy to the remaining apples.


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

Bobbb said:


> The advice below is too late in the season to help you this year but as you develop your canning skills for next year, then maybe you should think about making your own pectin.
> 
> Find a use for tart apples, then use the cores and scraps to make pectin. This is simply a variation of using apples scraps to make cider vinegar. Here though you make the pectin earlier in the season. If you have your own apples tree you can even give a marginal boost to production by harvesting some apples early for pectin production and thus allowing the tree to divert energy to the remaining apples.


Very cool, thank you! I was going to ask about how people did this before there was plastic jars of Pectin available in a big box store like walmart but I wanted to go look it up first. Now I have a place to start looking! :2thumb:


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

When I was a wee lad I remember my mother took me for an afternoon apple harvest to some local woods where a wild crab apple tree was growing. I wanted to have an apple, she said I wouldn't like these apples, I insisted, and she let me bite into one. Wow, the pucker face I made had her laughing in stitches. These sour, unfit for human tastes, crab apples were perfect for pectin making, which is exactly what she did with them.

If you can't find a wild crab apple tree an alternative source is to freeze all the skin and seeds from the lemons you use and then when you have enough use them to make pectin.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Dakine said:


> $18 a dozen, at first I thought I was getting taken,


Here in North Texas even at the expensive stores you can get a case of wide mouth pints with lids for about $11.00 and change. I usually pay about $9.00 even for them if/when I need to pick up more.

BUT, congrats on the first steps in canning, it can be habit forming.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

I need some help here and this is the perfect moment for it.

I picked my CrabApple tree yesterday, but, the majority of the CrabApples came off the stems "easily" and the majority of the apples have the texture / feeling of perfectly ripe grapes. There are some that are firm like a good crisp apple.

Should I attempt to turn these into jelly or should I say that I missed the right picking date - two weeks ago they were not ready (at all) and then we had a freeze and snow-storm and yesterday was my first chance at getting them off the tree.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

If there mushy, I thin yall missed the pick time, it prolly was that freeze that done ya in.

I picked my grapes on the last possible day, it froze that night an everthin was dyin the next day.

The ones what still be firm should be useable.

You can try them, but I ain't sure how it's gonna come out, they say at the peak a freshness, I thin yer on the other side a the peak.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

OldCootHillbilly said:


> If there mushy, I thin yall missed the pick time, it prolly was that freeze that done ya in.
> 
> I picked my grapes on the last possible day, it froze that night an everthin was dyin the next day.
> 
> ...


I have about 300 "soft" ones to every single "crispy" one. We had some good snow-storms already this year, but, yesterday it was in the 20s C (70s F) ... this time of year around here is very difficult to predict what the weather will be like.


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

And the pectin levels of northern crabs has to be tested first


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Tirediron said:


> And the pectin levels of northern crabs has to be tested first


How do I do that?

When I was a wee-lad, my parents had a crab-apple tree in the backyard and I remember my momma makin' jelly, but, I was young-n-dumb back then and I didn't learn anything about making the crab-apple jelly. I did all kinds of other canning stuff (like making juice and jams out of the plums from the backyard) ...

Last year when I moved into this place, I knew there was a tree in the backyard, it wasn't until this July that I found out what kind of tree. There was no fruit on it last year, this year watched the flowers turn to fruit and realized what it was.

Its been probably 30 years since I did any canning with my momma. :eyebulge:

I think I am gettin' old now. :sssh:


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

NaeKid said:


> How do I do that?


Two ways:

1.) On the fly during use - take whatever hot jelly that you're making into a spoon, ice the underside of the spoon and observe how well it jells as it cools. Adjust accordingly by adding pectin to the mix. The more you "reduce" the jelly/pectin mix the more you concentrate the pectin.

2.) To determine the amount of pectin in your liquid put one teaspoon of the liquid on a plate and add 2 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol to the mix. Swirl the mixture around until clots start to form. It will amaze you but it will happen and you will know the strength of the pectin by the size of the clots. Basically you want a fairly large viscous clot to form to indicate strong pectin. Weak pectin count will show up as several small, scattered clumps. If that is the case, just bring the liquid back to the boil and reduce further. And please toss out the test batch. You don't want to return that to the pot. Once it reaches the desired strength you can refrigerate, freeze or "can it" until you make jam.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

So, that is what is meant on the recipe site as the gel-stage-test ...

http://www.canadianliving.com/food/crab_apple_jelly.php

Good to know!


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_...8&cpncode=30-77098733-2&sid=KDx20090423x00001

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1276024&cp=2568443.2568448.11927733.11927746

Big Lots had jars for $8 a case.
Not sure about now.


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## biobacon (Aug 20, 2012)

Dollar tree has regular lid pint jars for $1 each of course. Got mine at Meijer for buy 2 cases gt 1 free. Congrats on trying something new, these guys got me doing all kinds of things this summer.


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## SouthCentralUS (Nov 11, 2012)

OldCootHillbilly said:


> Wow! I get new jars fer $8 a dozen er there bouts!
> 
> Somewhere I got a site what sells lids in bulk. I'll try an remember ta look it up fer yall. Was lots cheaper.


I know this is old, but I was searching for bulk lids. Did you remember the site for them? Lehmans, Amazon and Ebay are more expensive than I can buy by the dozen at the grocery store. I checked a few other places but they are more expensive in bulk also.


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

SouthCentralUS said:


> I know this is old, but I was searching for bulk lids. Did you remember the site for them? Lehmans, Amazon and Ebay are more expensive than I can buy by the dozen at the grocery store. I checked a few other places but they are more expensive in bulk also.


Holy BUMP Batman!!!! 

actually, since I orginally posed this I have found that the walmart in my area carries jars and lids which are massively cheaper than buying them online which is what I was doing originally.

I'm getting pint wide mouth jars for about $8.50 a dozen, and when they have them, boxes of lids per dozen are about $1.75 for small, and $2.25 for wide, so it's a break even on $4 per 2 dozen, which is still WAY BETTER than amazon.


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## biobacon (Aug 20, 2012)

Hey Dakine, Walmart has an off brand called mainstays I think that are cheaper then Ball by about 10%. Kroger in my area has some canning stuff on sale this week. They are way overpriced off sale there but if you shop there anyway and want the fuel perks for them now that they are about regular price, might be a way to go.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

I wen't ta lookin fer them bulk lids. Even the site be gone! To bad, I'd bout some stuff from em an they was perty decent. Sign a the economy I spouse.


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## Halloween (Nov 24, 2012)

Jelly - now there is one thing I cannot make!

Hurts the ego a little


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## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

I just called my mom tonight and asked her if she'd like to help me make raspberry jelly on Friday. They're coming to visit us and celebrate my and my son's birthdays. So I figured it would be precious for me to can something with my mom, possibly one last time. 

Having said that.... I dang near don't have any blood left in my body after stupidly going out to pick tonight without long sleeves on!! Between the mosquitoes and the heat I about died getting those precious berries and there's at least 2 or 3 more pickings left on the vines!! But I'm thankful for each and every berry and I was bellerin out 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow'. My kids were just shaking their heads.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

:bump:






:flower: :flower: :flower: :flower:


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

Cheap jars at Menards. Usually in the $8-11 range per dozen depending on jar size/type.

We just finished up our third round (in two weeks) of Concord Grape Jelly. Real simple. Grapes, a bit of water, an apple and sugar. About an hour and a half - two hours including the canning at the end.

7 1/2 cups of concord grapes, stems removed. Put in pot, add a chopped apple (peel, seeds and all) and a 1/2 cup water. Bring to boil and lower to a brisk simmer/light boil for 20 minutes. Strain the juice out mashing the grapes/apple so some pulp makes it through the strainer too. Add 1 2/3 cups sugar to the liquid and boil for 30-60 minutes until it "sheets" off the back of a spoon. Pour in jars and process. We get about 3 of the 1/2 pint jars per batch.

Note, the original recipe called for a tart apple. We used Galas and they worked fine.


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