Lemon Jelly

5 cups 30 min 15 min prep

1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups water
4 1/2 cups sugar
12 ounces liquid fruit pectin
3-4 drops yellow food coloring
Combine lemon juice, lemon rind and water in a glass bowl and let stand for 10 minutes.
Strain mixture into a large saucepan.
Add sugar to juice mix and stir well.
Bring to a hard boil over high heat, stirring constantly.
Stir in fruit pectin.
Bring back to full boil and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat.
Stir in food coloring.
Skim off foam with metal spoon.
Ladle into hot sterilized jars and process in BWB for 5 min. If you use clean, hot jars, and not boiled to sterilize, process 10 min.

Lemon Jelly
4 cups lemon juice (about 20 lemons)
180ml liquid pectin
6 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon butter (prevents foaming)

Boil lemon juice one minute. Add sugar and pectin and the butter. Return to a full rolling boil. Boil 3 minutes. Ladle into clean hot jars and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

I've never made this, and frankly I fail to see the necessity of the pectin, since lemon juice has plenty of its own (a squeeze of two of lemon juice in any jam will make it jell!). Try a small batch without the pectin and see how it goes, add pectin if needed. I don't think you'll need it. You could toss the peel (minus pith) into the mixture and strain it out before bottling for a more intense flavour.

Thanks to the both of you! I appreciate it!

Funny, when I saw the title of this post, I thought I bet Daisy will come up with a recipe. Hope you're feeling good Daisy, sending good thoughts your way.

Stacie

DAISY, I seldom do jellies, but this one has me considering it very strongly. Do you think the lemon zest could be finely chopped and suspended (as in Haberano Gold)?

I'm really thinking about trying it without the commercial pectin.

Noticed your post about jalapenos... hope the planning ahead means you're feeling better. Kay

Yes Linda Lou and Daisy are helpful! Daisy has been a great resource in the Herb dept (well, last year as I have not visited this site in awhile).

Kay...with the honey lemon jelly, I use a fine grater so the zest is small...but it floated.

If you like the peel, why not give it a go? I would strain it out because I like my jams and jellies etc very smooth. I do like anything lemon-y to have a bit of a bite, though, which is why I suggested giving the jelly more oomph with the peel. I wonder if it would help to occasionally turn the jars upside down and back again while they're cooling, to help suspend the peel? I dunno really.

Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm still very ill, with a long way to go. I can just about manage to make myself a cup of tea, and that's the extent of my cooking. My gardening friend gave my garden a complete makeover a few weeks ago, and I've got some jalapeno plants coming along. When they fruit, I'll just freeze them until I'm ready to do something with them.

Sorry to hear this Daisy....if I were closer, I would make you a nice cup of tea and help around the house and yard.

Daisy, you are a real trooper. Hang in there.

The reason I don't do jellies is I like lots of texture ... my jams are more like preserves -- at least half of the fruit I leave whole. Actually I eat very little of either. But I think I'd like the lemon jelly - particularly with the rind. I'm also thinking about Lemon Pepper Jelly with the rind and Cracked Black Pepper.

Do you have a mint jelly recipe you use? Sure-jell has mint jelly recipes using both certo and sure-jell and the low sugar sure-jell on their website. I would think you could make a mint infusion with the water in the lemon jelly recipe without any problem. It sounds good to me. What do you plan to use it for? I still have one jar of lemon jelly from couple of years ago when Harris-Teeter had lemons on sale for 8 cents each. I brought it up and put it in the fridge so we would use it. It was the oldest jar in the house. Let us know how it turns out.
Melly

I sure will Melly. I like lemon and have mint so I thought a mild infusion may be nice. Use? I am thinking the morning biscuit type of thing.

If you want to include the lemon zest, you need to simmer it first for at least 10 minutes (until translucent). That cooks it and gets the air out and lets it mix with the jelly without floating to the top.

I like to peel the lemon zest with a veggie peeler and cut into thin strips, then simmer it until it is tender. Adjust cooking time to your own texture preference.

For a stronger bitter flavor (traditional marmalade flavor) measure and use the zest-simmering liquid as your liquid in the jelly recipe. for a milder flavor, cook the zest in water, then discard the water and stir the zest into the jelly just before putting the jelly into jars.

I never use pectin in lemon recipes, but I also never use water. (I just use straight lemon juice. I like my preserves to have intense flavors.) With water added, maybe pectin is necessary. You'll have to experiment!

I can't wait to try this recipe!

Sorry you are ill Daisy...It's a real bummer isn't it. I have Lung Cancer so I can't do what I usually manage. I'm doing chemo now after my surgery and it really takes it out of me. I send good thoughts to you for a speedy recovery.