Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: Kleftiwallah on September 14, 2023, 18:02

Title: Blackberries/brambles.
Post by: Kleftiwallah on September 14, 2023, 18:02

You don't get many jars of blackberry jelly from 5 lbs of fruit!

Cheers.  Tony.
:blush:
Title: Re: Blackberries/brambles.
Post by: Felicity A on October 06, 2023, 15:10
You don't say how much water you added when you stewed your brambles down - perhaps cover fruit with water more generously next time and leave to strain overnight to get all juice out.
Title: Re: Blackberries/brambles.
Post by: Growster... on October 06, 2023, 18:36
Would a dose of Pectolase have sorted out the juicing?

I make a lot of elderberry wine, and soak the berries for thirty-six hours with a few teaspoons of the stuff, and the juice is almost like treacle sometimes!
Title: Re: Blackberries/brambles.
Post by: coldandwindy on October 07, 2023, 09:09
Pectin makes jam set. No pectin = no jam.

Pectin isn't useful for wine-making and makes wine cloudy. Adding pectolase destroys the pectin in fruit so the wine is clear.

@Kleftiwallah - you probably threw away 4 lbs of seeds. Worth it though - bramble jelly is a special treat & the seeds compost.
Title: Re: Blackberries/brambles.
Post by: Kleftiwallah on October 07, 2023, 10:11
Good morning everybody,
Felicity A, 50/50 by volume just as our recipe says.
Growster, I'm a wine maker of old and understand about pectin, but you need the pectin to set the jelly.
coldandwindy, yes the seeds are in the compost (along with damson sludge and crab apple residue).
Cheers to all,  Tony. :D
Title: Re: Blackberries/brambles.
Post by: Snow on October 07, 2023, 16:55
All the blackberries near me are blighted or never set. Absolute none to pick  :( 

Title: Re: Blackberries/brambles.
Post by: Growster... on October 07, 2023, 18:26
I thought I'd got it all the wrong way round...

But you ought to see the elders juice I get from the dried packs! Add a few blackcurrants, and it's 'Eat your heart out ChateauNeuf du Pape...'