I've been extracting pectin from green apples. Our tree was sagging from all the apples it is bearing, so we've thinned it out and I am boiling down the small apples. The pectin passes the alcohol test, although each batch is slightly different from the next. I'm trying to concentrate it so it doesn't take up too much space. I'm up to 18 qts so far and I have hundreds of pounds of apples still waiting.

My question is - how does my home-made pectin compare with commercial liquid pectin? The descriptions of liquid pectin sound like a 3oz package would set around 6-8 pints of jelly. Is this super-concentrated pectin? How do I calibrate my pectin against this? Or do I have to make up my jams or jellies and test each batch in order to normalize my pectin.

Thanks,
Cheryl

Is liquid pectin super-concentrated? Depends on the brand but for the most part yes it is.

How can you calibrate yours against it? AFAIK you can't, not with any consistent results. Yours would have to match the standardized specific gravity of the commercial stuff so you'd first have to determine what theirs is. Then test yours at a specific temperature (SG = 2x H2O @ 39 degrees F (4 degrees C) at 1 atmosphere of pressure).

That means expensive equipment in a controlled environment would be required to even measure the specific gravity of it much less standardize it.

A cheap hydrometer could get you a range of SG to work toward with yours but I'd guess the testing of many batches would be the best approach unfortunately.

Hope this helps.

Dave

The alternative to turning the thinnings into pectin is to throw them onto the compost heap. That's where the apple pulp is going. I don't know if I'll make lots of jams for sale, but that's a possibility given the huge amounts of apples, apricots and cherries we are getting from the trees around the house. Or I'll make lots of jellies and give them away. We moved into the house last fall, when no fruit was visible and had no idea what we had.

Sounds like I have a lot of experimentation ahead of me. Recipes using green apple pectin suggest replacing the water used by the liquid pectin, so I'll start with that.

Thanks,
Cheryl

None of those possibilities appeal to you?

Dave

I plan to make lots of apple dishes in a couple of months, but the 200 lbs of sour green apples aren't worth the effort. Extracting pectin is time consuming but I can process the apples by the bushel instead of one at a time.

BTW I have a demanding full time job so all this has to be done over weekends. We also have a big garden which needs a lot of work apart from thinning the apple tree which I've done in between cutting up and cooking apples the last 3 weekends.

I suppose I could just ignore the apples and let the birds eat them.

Cheryl

In Madelaine Bullwinkle's book, she uses three cups of apple pectin stock per recipe. Christine Ferber uses about a cup of her Apple Pectin Jelly (but hers already has sugar in it so it's truly jelly) per kilo - or 2-1/2 pounds roughly - of fruit.

I'd probably start with 1/2 cup of your pectin per pound of fruit (adjusting for low pectin vs. medium pectin vs. high pectin fruits) and keep checking the set. Add more of your pectin until it sets the way you want, and record how much you used. You would have to be careful about the temperature as the pectin will start to break down at higher temps.

If the jam/jelly doesn't set firmly enough, it always makes great ice cream topping or pancake syrup!

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheryl