I was wondering if anyone has made elderberry jelly and do you have a recipe or tips for making it? I have the berries, but the first batch I made turned out very soft. Is this normal or do I need to do something different???? My recipe: 4c elderberry juice 4 1/2c. sugar 1/2 a lemon juiced 1 box of powder pectin bring to a boil and cook at a rolling boil for 5 min. Ladle into jars and seal. I found a recipe using apple juice and elderberry juice in equal portions that I will try next. I am making the juice as I type...maybe this one will work better and should I still use the powder pectin with the apple juice exchange? any advice would be welcome. Thanks
I usually bring the juice and sugar to a rolling boil, stirring while it boils for 1-5 minutes. Then add the Pectin, bring to a boil again for 1 minute while stirring. Skim off any foam then put in jars. I'm thinking you might be cooking the pectin too long? Pasteurized apple juice doesn't contain much, if any, pectin, it would just add a different flavor to the elderberry jelly. Pectin is extracted from the pulp that is left after all the juice is squeezed from the apples. The recipe that comes from Certo pectin .... 3 cups elderberry juice 7 cups sugar 2 pouches pectin (I use the certo liquid pectin) 1/2 cup lemon juice Also, I forgot to say that the amount of sugar in the recipe should be enough to help with the gelling process too, that's why recipes will have the instructions do not reduce the amount of sugar given. Many of my recipes call for twice as many cups of sugar as there are cups of juice or fruit.
I posted the recipe for remaking jam or jelly that refuses to set properly. I got it from Ball many years ago. Failure to Jell, recipe for runny Jam and Jelly
had some apple last year that just refused to set up. and that is odd since apples have a lot of pectin. i just used it as syrup on pancakes. nice change and not as expensive as all those speciality syrups.
