Making jelly

A jelly is similar to a jam except that the fruit pulp is strained overnight before being boiled up with the sugar to make a clear preserve. Fruits with a high pectin content are best for jelly making. Those with a low pectin content are best combined with a high pectin fruit such as redcurrant or apple, or made using sugar with pectin

Preparing the fruit
Wash the fruit and remove damaged or bruised parts before weighing it. Don’t bother to peel, core or stone as this will be discarded during straining.

Cooking the fruit
This will vary according to the softness of the fruit and can take from 30min to 11/2hr.

Straining the fruit pulp
Scald a jelly bag in boiling water. Suspend the bag from a hook or from the legs of an upturned stool and position a large bowl underneath to catch the juice. Spoon the pulp into the bag and leave it until the dripping stops. Squeezing the bag to extract extra juice will result in a cloudy jelly.

Adding the sugar
Measure the strained juice into a preserving pan and add the sugar, allowing 450g (1lb) sugar for every 600ml (1pt) juice of high pectin content and 350g (12oz) sugar for juice with a medium pectin content. Cook over a gentle heat until the sugar is dissolved then boil until setting point is reached.

From Good Housekeeping Complete Book of Preserves

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