North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

Can you describe what the gel point looks like?  I mostly try to pour a 
spoonful into a ramekin, run cold water from the tap on the outside of the 
ramekin, and see if it seems to be gelling as is cools, but that's pretty 
awkward.

By the way, my jelly is plenty sour -- it is red currant jelly after all.  I 
don't think I want to add lemon juice.  It's just ALSO extremely sweet.  
It'll be fine with peanut butter and bread.  But next year I'll use less 
sugar, and put up with jelly that's a little soft or a little gummy.

Ginda

On Jul 2, 2010, at 8:31 PM, Stephen Sadler wrote:

> 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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