Why didn't my jelly set up?

Question

I followed the direction exactly and measured carefully and used the correct amount of fruit pectin. I used bottled, pure, unsweetened grape juice. I used the same type of pectin, purchased as the same time, for blueberry jam this morning and that turned out perfectly. Help!

Answer 1

More than likely, the bottled grape juice wasn't acidic enough. If you boil and strain grapes, you would have had a very different juice. If you want to use bottled juice, add 1/4 cup lemon juice to the juice and follow the jelly recipe.

In the future, if it doesn't set and you want To Remake Cooked Jelly Without Added Pectin-
Add 1-1/2 teaspoons bottled lemon juice per cup jelly before boiling. Heat the jelly to boiling and boil until the jellying point is reached. Remove jelly from heat, skim and pour immediately into sterilized hot containers, seal and process for 5 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Answer 2

I sometimes have the same problem. The last time I put up some pepper jelly I found that I had to almost double the cooking time. Also I added a little more pectin than was called for. When the mixture began to gel agaist the side of the pot I knew it was ready. I don't think they give very accurate cook times on those pectin recipes.

Answer 3

My guess is that for whatever reason it did not "cook down" enough -- therefore the pectin couldn't "jell" it....

Big Kitty

Answer 4

You probably needed to cook it a little longer I've done that it taste great as a topping for ice cream!

Answer 5

Water content exceeded its allowed quantity. You could have heated up for some more time.

Answer 6

you didn't put it in the freezer??