Fruit Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Gather the fruit in dry weather, remove stalks and decayed pieces.
Place the fruit in a clean pan and warm it slowly until the juice is released.
Squeeze the fruit gently through a muslin or clean kitchen towel to extract the juice.
Measure the juice and return it to the pan with the sugar.
Boil and set
Bring the mixture slowly to a boil, skimming carefully.
Boil quickly for 5 to 10 minutes.
Test the jelly by placing a spoonful in a cool saucer; if it stiffens immediately, it is ready.
If not, boil for a few more minutes.
Pour into pots and cover tightly with paper immediately.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Fruit juice
- Provides the liquid and the fruit flavour that form the body of the jelly.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set as it boils and thickens.
The step that matters
Testing the set on a cool saucer. Jelly sets because pectin and sugar concentrate as water boils off. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff and dull, so the cool-saucer test shows when it is ready.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
More fruit jelly recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.