How to make liquid pectin - and thoughts on waste

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British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
We have had a few posts lately on the forum on the relative merits of jam sugar, pectin etc.

I commented at the time that I prefer to add pectin separately to sugar. If my jam or jelly is not setting, I prefer to be able to add more pectin without making it sweeter.

Today my dehydrator was full of apples

Excalibur Dehydrator by British Red, on Flickr

and of course I had a large bucket of apple peels and cores

Apple peel and cores by British Red, on Flickr

Now if you have apple peels and cores, you have pectin. Throwing them away and them buying pectin, or jam sugar, is really very wasteful.

In addition to these my weeping crab apple tree has a reasonable amount of (high pectin) fruit.

Crab apple tree by British Red, on Flickr

So into the mix they go

Pectin mix by British Red, on Flickr

and the whole lot gets poured into a large stock pan with a few inches of water

Cores in pans by British Red, on Flickr

I cooked the lot into a mush

Cooked apple pulp by British Red, on Flickr

and strained it into a clean bucket through muslin and a colander (not got a bucket sized colander? Tie some cloth over the bucket with string)

Straining apple pulp by British Red, on Flickr

I'm left with a brown apple and water solution

Strained apple juice by British Red, on Flickr

If I lived in a sensible country, I could feed the pulp to livestock. But its illegal to re-use kitchen foodscraps here so it has to be composted. It makes me, honestly, very angry, that wasting food is now enshrined in law. I have had tow food uses from these apples - but I could have had three.

Next I took a teaspoon of the juice and dropped in alcohol (meths, rubbing alcohol etc.). If the pectin is sufficiently strong, it will turn to gel inside a minute. If not, it needs to be boiled down to a more concentrated form

Hot strained pectin by British Red, on Flickr

Meths and apple syrup by British Red, on Flickr

Once sure it is concentrated enough, I water bath canned the liquid in half pints for ten minutes

Canning set up by British Red, on Flickr

Filling Jars by British Red, on Flickr


and there we have it

ten jars of liquid pectin that would have cost £25 to buy - from "food waste"

Oh - and the original dried apples are working out well too

Dried Apple Rings by British Red, on Flickr
 
Last edited:

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
Nice job. Thanks for sharing. Any idea how long it will keep before going bad; if indeed it does go bad?
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Oh once canned it'll be fine for next years jams and jellies, let alone this years. I also see no reason why it could not be frozen.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Thanks you Cameron - I lerned the basics of the technique from the wonderful Wendy Mae - I just adapted it to use scraps :eek:
 

tommy the cat

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 6, 2007
2,138
1
55
SHROPSHIRE UK
O must get a dehydrator. .. my apples just won't keep.
I've tried all kinds of ideas and I've just come to the conclusion what ever variety it is isn't one that keeps well 😢
I hate food waste and once again I'm throwing apples away. Dehydrated cinnamon coated rings mnnnnn
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Some varieties only keep a couple of weeks. Fine for canning, drying or freezing - but no good for ambient storage. We are looking to add a couple of long term eaters to add to our cookers, juicers, early eaters etc.
 
Dec 6, 2013
417
5
N.E.Lincs.
I managed to beat the Deer to the Crab Apples this year so I made up about 3 pints of pectin a couple of weeks ago using more or less the same method as this. It certainly keeps a year with no problems and I have opened up jars that were 2 years old and though I had no need for the actual pectin (it was the empty jars I was short of) it looked fine and could probably have been used with no problems. Definitely cheaper and more versatile than shop bought stuff.
 

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