Making Jelly

• Jelly is made from fruit juice. It is a translucent product that is dense enough to hold its shape when scooped from a container. To make jelly, clean and cook the preferred fruit until soft. Strain the fruit through a large piece of cheesecloth over a pot or bowl, squeezing the cloth to extract as much juice as possible. Discard the cloth, seeds and pulp. Avoid using commercially produced juices as they normally have minimal amounts of pectin and natural flavors. Add sugar and pectin, a natural fibrous thickener made from the cell walls of many fruits, and proceed according to recipe guidelines. Pour the jelly into sanitized jars and process until the jars are vacuum-sealed or, if using a frozen jelly recipe, place into the freezer.
  
  

Best Jelly Ingredients

• Jelly needs a generous amount of natural acid to properly gel, so the best jelly fruits are tart apples, currants, crab apples and plums. To make cherry, strawberry, blackberry or elderberry jelly, add tart apple or lemon juice to the recipe. Select barely ripe fruit for jellies as overly ripe selections will result in runny jelly.
  
  

Preserve Recipe

• Preserves get their name from the whole or partial pieces of fruit preserved or conserved in a thick, clear gelatinous liquid. Of all the spreads, preserves are thickest and have the heaviest concentration of natural fruit taste. To make preserves, gently cook the fruit, being careful not to destroy its shape, and proceed with the same process used for making jelly.
  
  

Preferred Preserve Fruits

• Small fruits like strawberries, blueberries, cherries and blackberries make the most attractive preserves as they are used whole or halved. Other popular preserve fruits include peaches and apricots cut into bite size pieces.
  
  

Other Fruit Spreads

• You will find other fruit spreads alongside jellies and preserves on the market shelf. Jam is made from pieces of crushed fruit and has a rich, viscous consistency. Fruit butters are smooth, easily spreadable and made from combining and cooking fruit pulp and sugar until thick. Marmalades have chunks of specific citrus fruit and peel in them and conserves contain a mixture of citrus fruits and sometimes include nuts in the mixture.