So, like, a person at work gives out homemade jelly during the holidays, and my computer blew up. I had time on my hands and way too much fruit, so I have been learning to make jelly. Grapefruit jelly is easy and delicious. Orange marmalade takes way to freaking long to set. Now, I was addressing the apple issue. Apple-mint jelly. They put it on lamb. I don’t eat lamb, but I had been given a jar of it and used it on toast and it was delicious. So, I gave it a shot.
First there were 5.5 lbs of apples to wash and cut up. I boiled them in two cups of water with the mint from last weeks’ Los Poblanos box until it was squishy; then I added two cups of vinegar (?! it was what the recipe said! Honest!) Then I strained it through cheese cloth. It came out pinky-flesh colored and cloudy. Ooops. Well, maybe that was the “pink lady” apples. I could deal with that. However, only 1 cup of juice came out. Five pounds of apples, two cups of water and two cups of vinegar make one cup of juice? It was very bewildering. However, I soldiered on, adding the appropriate amount of sugar and a smidgey of pectin and boiling it some more until it “jelled” Then I poured it into jars – or rather jar. All of it. All that liquid and huge bowl of apples ended up as this:
This is all I got
One jelly jar a third full.
At least it is sort of a pretty color. And, I guess I can refrigerate it and use it immediately.
But, still, one third of a jar?
