[soaplady]

Hi,
This is my first attempt to make mint jelly, and I think I might have a problem, albeit a very small one.
I picked up my windfalls yesterday, and followed the recipe in Vals book. I added mint, and cooked the apples to a pulp, and hung it in my jelly bag off of my kitchen cupboard handles to drip. It has been there since about 10.30 yesterday morning until now, and there is about 1/2 a pint of juice in there.

The query I have is that the bag is still glistening and moist (haven't touched it, but boy am I tempted), but the juice that seems to be dripping out (not!) is quite thick, not how I thought it would be.
Should I leave it there for another day, or did i cook the apples too long, or maybe it was the type of apples I have used. They are the eaters with a couple of large cookers that have fell off the tree.

Really disappointed as I was hopiing for lots of jars of gorgeous mint jelly, and I think I will be hard pushed to get one!

Any advice would be gratefully received
Soaplady

[HelenK]

When making jellies you would usually take the juice that has dripped through the jelly bag and put it back into a clean pan, add the same amount of sugar and bring back to the boil for a while before testing for the setting point.

The recipe here does seem to suggest this -

http://www.allotment-garden.org/recipe/135/mint-jelly-recipe/

[soaplady]

Hi Helen,

Yes I am talking about the juice that has dripped through.  I thought a lot more juice would have come through by now, but there isn't very much there at all for 1.5kg apples.

Perhaps I am being a little over optimistic about the amount that would come through, but I thought the recipe implied that more than  1/2 pint would drip through overnight.
I will still add the appropriate amount of sugar to the juice that I have got, to make my jelly,  but I don't think I will get even one normal sized jar out of it. But, saying that I will be happy with what I have got, and just double up the recipe next time I make it.

[mumofstig]

i know that you shouldn't but i would give it a stir and a squeeze, i wouldn't care if it wasn't perfectly clear

[Spana]

If the juice is very thick, I would put the apple pulp back into a pan, add some more water and reboil a little .  Tip the whole lot back into a clean jelly bag or what ever you use and let it drip again, them mix the two lots of juice together.
I've done this many times.

Edited to add, dont press or squeeze it, it will make the finished jelly cloudy.

[soaplady]

Hi,

Thankyou for your replies. I will try adding a little more water to the apples. The juice that has dripped out is very very thick, more like a nectar really. So hopefully I will get a little bit more when I reboil.  I will try and put a photo up on here of the finished product, but I havven't been too successful at putting them up so far.

Thankyou

Soaplady