My son and I found a pear tree on our property with little pears that didn't really taste good (mealy). I believe my son looked it up and said they are Bradford pears. Anyway we decided to make jelly. I have never done this before. Here are the exact steps we took and the results.
We picked about 1/3 of a bushel of pears/washed them and then mashed them in a blender and cooked them with water for about an hour. We drained all the juice and returned it to the pot. We brought it back to a rolling boil and added sugar (1/2 what the recipe we found called for but tasted fine) - we added three boxes of pectin. Finished the process and canned them. All went fine and looked good. Next day tried it and it tasted and looked great but had not jelled any where near enough. We heated the jars in the canner and returned the "jelly" to the pan and brought to a rolling boil "again" and added 2 more boxes of pectin and repeated the canning process. Following morning, same thing - looked fine/tasted fine but had only slightly jelled more then it was before. Last night we heated the jars again in the canner and repeated the process "again" ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH this is getting old. We added one more box of pectin and one box of gelatin. This morning it has jelled “slightly” more but still not what I would call jelly and now it is milky white in color and not the clear darker brown it was before. All together we have 6 boxes of pectin and one box of gelatin in there. What did I do wrong? There are still a lot more pears on the tree so I may give it another shot in a smaller amount. Not going to waste this, it still tastes fine just not very appealing to look at LOL
We picked about 1/3 of a bushel of pears/washed them and then mashed them in a blender and cooked them with water for about an hour. We drained all the juice and returned it to the pot. We brought it back to a rolling boil and added sugar (1/2 what the recipe we found called for but tasted fine) - we added three boxes of pectin. Finished the process and canned them. All went fine and looked good. Next day tried it and it tasted and looked great but had not jelled any where near enough. We heated the jars in the canner and returned the "jelly" to the pan and brought to a rolling boil "again" and added 2 more boxes of pectin and repeated the canning process. Following morning, same thing - looked fine/tasted fine but had only slightly jelled more then it was before. Last night we heated the jars again in the canner and repeated the process "again" ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH this is getting old. We added one more box of pectin and one box of gelatin. This morning it has jelled “slightly” more but still not what I would call jelly and now it is milky white in color and not the clear darker brown it was before. All together we have 6 boxes of pectin and one box of gelatin in there. What did I do wrong? There are still a lot more pears on the tree so I may give it another shot in a smaller amount. Not going to waste this, it still tastes fine just not very appealing to look at LOL