So, having gotten the bug I decided I would venture out a little more. I made strawberry jam a couple weeks ago... I'm in heaven. The taste is so strawberryish(I don't think that's really a real word), the texture was perfect, it set beautifully. Having gained a little confidence I decided that 6 lb bag of apples on the counter that no one was eating needed to be turned in to jelly.
I was tired and decided to take a short cut. Wrong turn detour go back do not do. Short cuts and canning are not ok.
I put the apples in the pressure cooker to turn them to mush.
Problem with that is they didn't cook long enough to really release their juice and all that natural pectin.
Thinking I'm just brilliant and cut the prep time down by oh about 3 hours I commenced with the jelly making. I took the apple mush and ran it through a sieve over and over. I put some in cheese cloth, tied the top and squeezed more juice out. I finally had the 6 cups of liquid I needed. Dump it in the pot, add sugar, add the half bag of pectin, boil and stir.
It didn't thicken.
Add the other half the pectin packet.
Boiled.
Stirred.
It didn't thicken.
Got another packet out, added half.
Boiled.
Stirred
YES it's a little thicker.
Thinking I had success I proceeded to pour it in the jars, lid them, put them in the hot water to be boiled.
Timer goes off, take them out, the musical popping of lids sealing happens immediately, I leave the jars to set overnight.
In the morning...I had liquid jelly.
I stuck a jar in the fridge.
The next morning....I had liquid jelly. I took all the jars to the basement food storage area and left them.
A week later....I had liquid jelly.
I don't think it was successful.
Next step is to open the jars and dump that sweet appley goodness down the drain and try again.
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