North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Pat Armstrong" <rancher@carolina.rr.com>]

Thanks for mentioning the lemon juice Stephen, I had forgotten about that, 
my Mom didn't need it for the crabapple jelly, but did for the grape...YMMY 
(grins)

Pat
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>
To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 8:31 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] currant preserves and plant productivity.


> I think 3 and a half cups might be right - the Goldilocks solution, but 
> also
> the ratio I find in Putting Food By.  I've given up on jelly thermometers.
> At this point I can clearly see when something reaches the gel point, but
> before that I found the sheet test or putting a spoonful in the fridge to 
> be
> more dependable.  I love the idea of using temperature - I just don't 
> think
> I get an accurate reading in all that roiling fruit and sugar, especially
> with the small batches I often put up. It's probably me, not the tools. I
> never go wrong by eye.  It's clearly not genetic - growing up we had many
> plum trees, and all the plum jam my mother intended turned out to be 
> syrup -
> really delicious syrup that I miss, but never jelly or jam.
> My latest small batch jam was blueberry pineapple.  New combination for 
> me,
> but terribly good.
>
> I'm glad yours is good, wish there was a way to correct the flavor - 
> lemon,
> mentioned earlier, or rose hip syrup, maybe, but it might make it too 
> thin.
>
>
> ~ Stephen
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Ginda Fisher
> Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 3:36 PM
> To: North American Fruit Explorers
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] currant preserves and plant productivity.
>
> In past years I've used 3 cups of sugar to a quart of juice.  That made
> delicious jelly, but the texture was never right.  This year I tried using 
> 4
> cups of sugar for a quart of juice, and it jelled beautifully, but it's a
> little sweet for my tastes.  It's hard to tell when to stop cooking, and 
> the
> texture problems might be from over or under cooking, not from the amount 
> of
> sugar.  I have a completely useless jelly thermometer.  Maybe if I had an
> accurate jelly thermometer I'd have better results.
>
> Anyhow, next year I will go back to using 3 cups of sugar.
>
> This jelly isn't bad, by the way, it's just not as wonderful in flavor as
> what I've made in the past.
>
>
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