Elderberry Jelly

Jelly is a preserve of fruit and sugar which is clear and colourful and consists of the fruit without the attendant pulp, skins, seeds and pips. I made my jelly from the recipe in the following book:

The Right Way to Make Jams (Right Way S.): Amazon.co.uk: Cyril Grange: Books

I love free stuff especially food.

I was given a large free bag of elderberries and decided to make some jelly.

  After a wash and de-stalking ( which if I had read the recipe first I could have avoided  as de-stalking is not necessary when making jelly).

I placed the elderberries and 2 lbs of cooking apples (cut up and washed) from the garden into the preserving pan and add water and lemon juice.

Quite a good haul!

Simmer to cook and extract the juice.

Strain, allow the fruit pulp to drip through the double layer of butter muslin overnight to extract all the juice.

The next morning measure out the juice and add 1 lb of sugar for each pint of juice to the pan.

Bring the juice and sugar to the boil, and allow it to boil rapidly, stirring so sugar dissolves. Setting point should be reached within 20 - 30 minutes, the thermometer should be 104 - 105 C (200 - 221 F).

Clear the scum off the top, fill sterilized jars right to the top; pour slowly so that no bubbles are formed. Cover with waxed disc and screw lids on tight.  Label etc.

A tip for pretty jam jar covers like mine: cupcake cases, they come in lots of  pretty designs and are very cheap.

Jellies can be time consuming but for great for people who prefer jams without 'bits'. A good jelly should wobbly, be clear and have the concentrated flavour of the fruit.

Until next time,


Beardog xx