Last year I catered a wedding for a lovely young couple. My main contact for the event was the brides mom who also happens to be a wonderful gardener. I put the call out on Facebook for any excess rose hips as I love rosehip jelly. She really delivered with close to 3 lbs in tea cup rose hips. She also happened to have a healthy apple tree which I used for its pectin. Jelly is probably the easiest to make. This is the basic method that can be used for almost all fruits and berries. First the rose hips. You want to make sure that you source them from an organic gardener or farmer. Its really important that they come from a clean source as pesticides can be found in large amounts once the products has been made into a tea. Second is you want to make sure you are choosing a fragrant rose. Many roses have been engineered for their beauty rather than their smell and you want those fragrant essential oils in order to create good flavor. Third you will get the most flavor out of hips that have had a good frost on them. A similar reaction is found in carrots- a concentration of sweetness and therefore flavour. Second, you need at least half of your mixture to be tart apples. If your apples are sweet go 2:1 apples to hips or berries. You need a high concentration of pectin in order to set your jelly. Before cooking thoroughly clean your rosehip under running water. Thoroughly clean and roughly chop your apples. No need to peel or core! In a pot, combine your apples and hips. Cover with cold water and bring to a simmer. Simmer for approx 2 hours checking the water level and temperature often. Do not boil or allow to run dry! Add water as needed. Second strain your mixture through and jelly bag or a few layers or clean muslin. I found organic cotton muslin online for .95/yard and have been using it for years. Strain overnight or all day. In a large pot combine your rosehip/apple tea with sugar. The basic ratio for jelly is 1 liter of tea to 1 kg of sugar. It seems like a lot of sugar but it needs to be used at an exact 1:1 ratio in order to preserve. Too much will form sugar crystals. Not enough and you will encounter rot. Bring this mixture to a simmer and skim off any foam and impurities. If your the sciency type you can clip a thermometer to the side and watch for it to get to 104-105 degrees. That is the point where the sugar content is high enough to create a pectin web. This *should* be an ok time to can your jelly but I highly recommend testing your jelly first. Some fruits need more cooking time in order to set and its majorly disappointing to open a jar of unset jelly. To test your jelly take a plate and place it in the fridge. After a few minutes take your cooled plate and pour a small amount of jelly on it. Let it cool to the touch and then using the edge of your spoon spread the jelly across the plate. If a skin forms you have successfully made jelly. If not, keep cooking and testing. If your jelly does not set after 20 minutes further cooking consider adding commercial pectin, a small amount at a time, until your jelly sets. At this step you can use a water bath to can your jelly. I wont go into that here as there are millions of online tutorials. I hope you enjoyed my quick little jelly tutorial. Jelly is really easy once you get the hang of it and is a great addition to cheese plates, desserts, and as a glaze for meats.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 19:00:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015