Raspberry Jelly time!!

[Chief]

I've been searching around town for a decent straining bag for making jelly, and the best I could come up with that would hold a decent amount of fruit was a pair of boiling bags for making beer. They are made from polyester, and have a fine mesh molded into them, and can take the heat; but the mesh lets fine particles through which leads to cloudy jelly.

I did some searching online, and stumbled across a site in the UK called cookability.biz; and they sell pretty decent jelly bags with a reinforced top and straps to hang it with. I ordered 2 last week and they arrived yesterday, so I processed 5 gallons of frozen berries for jelly this coming week. I ended up with 2 hallons of very clear juice.

The bags are 100% cotton muslin, and have a thin wooden stave inside of a sewn pouch around the top rim. It holds the bag open so you can ladle or pour the hot berries into the bag. It's the smartest design I've ever seen, and these are not available here in the States at any price. 2 of them ran me $40 including shipping from the UK, and it took about 4 days to get here! Not too bad!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/Raspberries/006.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/Raspberries/005.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/Raspberries/007.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/Raspberries/008.jpg


Since the bags are 100% cotton, they are machine washable, and they came perfectly clean. I did hang-dry them as opposed to putting them into the drier.

Anyway, that's step one for making jelly, extract the juice and chill it back down. I'll move to making jelly early next week.

mrgrn

[Waterbuffalo]

Yeah, I have a new round of them...

So if you did stick them into the dryer, would the house smell of raspberries? What would the wife think of smelling berries night and day?

So I see you use this to strain out the pulp and fruit matter. Before you stick the berries into a blender to create a fruit puree and then dump it into the hot pot to cook, simmer and take out the juices before moving to this step?

I'm getting the ppcrn

[Chief]

No puree involved at all.

I put the frozen berries in a large pot, added about 3 cups of water, and brought them slowly to a boil, stirring constantly. As they heat up the fruit begins to break down, and just as it comes to a full boil, you pour all of it into the strainer bag and let it sit until the juice is done dripping. It takes 4-5 hours or even overnight to get all of the juice out, but it renders perfectly clear juice in the end.

[Waterbuffalo]

Interesting. Some thing new to know..