I spent all day today processing apples from our trees. After I finished peeling and coring them I ended up with a pretty substantial pile of apple bits. It would be a shame to just throw them out so I decided to use them for all they were worth. I was originally thinking of making them into apple cider vinegar but I didn't really have a container I could use for that. Instead I decided that I'd make jelly out of them. Since you generally just throw out the fruit when you make jelly it kind of seemed appropriate to use the unusable parts of the fruit to start with.
What you will need:
Apple peels and cores
Water
Sugar
1 Tbs lemon juice for every 2 cups of liquid
1. Put the peels and cores in a large pot. Add water until you can see it just under the top layer of fruit. Bring to a boil.
2. Boil fruit, uncovered, until it is soft. Strain liquid into a new pot.
3. For each cup of liquid add 3/4 cup of sugar. Add lemon juice and bring to a boil. Watch it carefully so that it doesn't boil over.
4. To check consistency: put some ice in a bowl. Scoop up a small amount of liquid with a spoon and place the spoon on the ice to get it to cool quickly. Turn spoon sideways. If the liquid has jelled onto the spoon and doesn't appear syrupy then it is done and ready to can. If you have a candy thermometer, you want the temperature to be 220 deg F.
5. Ladle hot jelly into sterilized jars. Put on sterile lids and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.
What a great post. Next time I make apple pies, I will save my peelings & cores for jelly making too.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking you were making pectin! You actually made jelly? Huh! Who knew?! :)
ReplyDeleteI did this last month with my apples too! I absolutely love the color it turns out because of all the peels. So lovely!
ReplyDeleteI always wonder can you use limes instead of lemons for canning? My family doesn't enjoy the flavor of lemons. However, limes they are happy to enjoy. Does it matter what fruit you use for the acid component?
ReplyDeleteLemons have a higher acidity so it is important to use them. You won't taste them though in the jelly.
ReplyDeleteI know this is really really old, but I wanted to leave this here for anyone else who passes by. If you don't like the taste of lemon - or don't happen to have any on hand - but need the acidity, use citric acid. It's in the big box stores and hardware stores with the canning/pickling stuff. 1/4 tsp citric acid is the equivalent to 1 Tbsp lemon juice. A $3 jar will last for YEARS, so it's a good thing to have on hand if you do canning and jamming. (You can also use 5%-acidity vinegar, but then you taste vinegar. Which sometimes is okay and sometimes is nasty.) I have my "apple stock" cooking now - I had 15 pounds of cores and peels! - but I don't do sugar in those amounts so it's Pomona's Pectin for me!
DeleteNeat. I've always made apple sauce and jelly from the same batch of apples. (Quarter, core, boil, fish out the apple pieces and throw them through a food mill then keep boiling the skins with the leftover juice in the pot.) It works best with crab apples though.
ReplyDeleteI've been making apple jelly with my leftover peels after I make my apple pie filling each year for canning. However, your post got me to thinking about the smaller amount of apple peels we discard each day. I'm wondering if I could freeze them until I have enough to make jelly or if I could make small little batches of juice and then freeze that until I have enough to make jelly! Something to ponder!
ReplyDeleteHi Everyone! I had my first experience making jelly by making apple peel jelly with the scraps from an apple pie fundraiser I organized with my Girl Scouts. So I made the amateur mistake of not testing the jelly before sealing up the jars so I now have 72 jars of runny jelly that is wayyyy too sweet! I know I can reboil the jelly and can it again with new lids, but if anyone can give me some pointers I would appreciate it! I made this recipe with store bought pectin, so should I add more pectin when I reboil or do something else? To fix the super sweetness should I just add water to dilute? Finally, the recipe I followed said to boil the jelly mixture for 1 minute and water bath for 5 minutes. Will boiling the mixture longer or doing a longer water bath change anything? Thanks in advance to anyone who has a spare moment to respond. :) Aimee
ReplyDeleteThe same thing happened to me.
Deletesame thing happened to me twice.That cost me a lot, and my companion is very upset.
DeleteI have one question :how do you do it?Mine was as runny as water .
DeleteYou could try using it as apple syrup, if it's runny enough, and either use it on pancakes etc. just like berry or maple syrup, or you could pour some into a glass and top it up with (fizzy) water for a refreshing drink. That should cut the sweetness, too. I make syrups like this from strawberries, lemon balm leaves and rhubarb every year, and used to make elderflower syrup as well. All for drinking. You pour about 1/2 inch of syrup in a glass to top off with water.
DeleteAimee, Unfortunately I never make jelly or jams with pectin so I don't have any experience with them. With this recipe you don't need to add any commercial pectin because the peels and cores contain more than enough. When you added the pectin did you also increase the amount of sugar? If not, you'll need to add more sugar, per the pectin's instructions. Sorry I can't be more help.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recipe! This is the first thing I've ever canned. It's still cooling, but the taste-test I did was delicious!
ReplyDeleteI tried this along with several others, but none of them thickened. What am I doing wrong ??I have spent so much money that Iam now in the doghouse with my partner.
ReplyDeleteThanks for nothing,
Penny Watson
goste_rydr_76@yahoo.com
This recipe did not work for me and I tried it twice.
ReplyDeleteWould it be beneficial to put the peels/cores after cooking down into the juicer and get the rest of the juice out? They seem pretty "wet".
ReplyDeleteI have canned before, but I never made jelly before. I have a huge pot of the sugary mixture boiling right now, but the temperature seems to get up to 210 and just stay there. I keep testing spoonfuls, but it hasn't gone past syrupy.
ReplyDeleteAlso, ought one to skim the scum? My husband, a former chef, says yes, using the analogy with soup stock. My skimmings are up to a cup now, mostly clear with half an inch of scum on top. I thought of skimming that and adding it back in, but didn't do it because what if it has to boil for a certain length of time, not just get to a certain temperature? I am afraid to wreck it.
Also, it has reduced down quite a bit as I wait for it to hit 220. That makes it even sweeter than it was. Is this supposed to happen?
Susan Peterson
I just got done making this. I am hoping the jelly sets up. I boiled and boiled and boiled the juice, sugar, lemon mixture and could only get it a hair above 215 degrees. It kept boiling over if I turned up the heat. Any suggestions here? I checked a spoonful of it and it was really thick and syrupy, so I hope that's good enough. New experience for me making jelly this way.
ReplyDelete