Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Daphne]

I've tried buying pectin here, polishing up my Portuguese.....pectina but I can't seem to find any. We have a lot of fruit and I want to make grape jelly and peach jam. The grapes are super ripe so I guess they need a lot of pectin, although they are very pippy (I'll strain these out). The peaches are not very ripe (must be an odd variety, ripening in September ) I know you can use lemons for pectin, but am a bit confused as to whether I need to make pectin and then use that (although as I understand it, you don't know how strong your pectin is) or whether you can get away with just immersing some lemon seeds/pith in the mixture (we have loads of lemons). I've also read that tart and under-ripe apples work well - we have loads of these as well, despite the fact I made a load of windfall apple chutney yesterday - but I'm not sure how to use them.

 

Does anybody have any top tips or experiences to share please?

[Olly]

No need to do anything with it, just add the lemon pith and seeds (in a bag so you can remove it, obviously!). Other sources are crab apples, the fruit from an ornamental japonica will do too. No idea on quantities, my mum used to do this though.

[The Dogmother]

I use lemon juice too, or a sliced up apple, which I remove later.

[ubereglu]

Is it that you want to make jam without pectin or you just can't get hold of it?

 

We always use liquid pectin and it comes in green bottles labelled certo. Usually found within the sugar aisles in Tesco or the like.

[Egluntyne]

Daphne is in Portugal. Maybe there isn't a Tesco where she is.

[Daphne]

Its just I can't find it, perhaps Portuguese women don't use it, as I explore the subject more I realise lots of people successfully make jam without it, and I am in the middle of rural nowhere so I expect everyone just uses lemons, which are abundant. I asked 2 assistants in the local supermarket this morning who couldn't help (quite possibly I was asking for something rather bizarre, not what I thought I was asking for!) and I searched high and low in the corner shop which has everything in it, but to no avail. I could get somebody to bring me some over in a fortnight, but the fruit is sitting here saying 'Jam me, Jam me' I'm going to try putting in lemon pith/pips and some apple for good measure into my experiments tomorrow morning.

[sjp]

there's a bit on here about testing jams and jellies for pectin and what to do for low pectin fruit some very good recipes to http://www.sandwellallotments.btck.co.uk/RECIPEPAGESWEETS

[Chickendoodle]

You could use the technique for the lemons that Saint Delia recommends for the oranges in marmalade making - put the citrus peel and pips in a muslin bag and boil with the jam. Take the bag out and cool for a bit then squeeze the bag until you have got all the sticky insides out and put these into the pan and boil until set.

 

I know marmalade is cooked for longer than jam but it might help to do the squeezing bit

[Daphne]

Just a quick update...thank you to everybody for pointing me in the right direction

 

I ended up making peach jam with the following quantities: For every 1lb fruit, I used about 6 oz sugar and juice of half a very juicy large lemon OR juice of one small not very juicy lemon. I just roughly chopped the fruit, brought everything up to the boil and boiled for about 15 mins until the froth died down a bit. Its given me a very good set. The fruit was a mix of windfall and underipe. Its the best jam I have ever made

 

The grapes got juiced or disappeared into our tummies before I could make any jelly

[Olly]

Glad to hear it worked out, sounds good!

[Lavenders_Blue]

That sounds heavenly - my mouth is watering!