Home cooks have been making pectin stock for a long, long time. Basically pectin stock can be made from any high-pectin fruit - apples, quinces, lemons, oranges, even plums I suppose. Apple stock is by far the most common because apples are loaded with natural pectin, they're available over a wide range of climate zones, they're easy to prep and the resulting stock is pretty "neutral." So apple pectin base is a good flavor carrier and can be used in a wide variety of jams and jellies without being obvious. Citrus pectin has slightly different qualities from apple. There's a difference in texture and the flavor is more pronounced. The difference in texture doesn't mean it's inferior. Manufacturers will choose one over the other (apple v.s. citrus) depending upon what they're making and the "mouthfeel" they're aiming for. The more pronounced flavor of a lemon pectin base means it's most suited for a jam or jelly where you want that lemon. The majority of pectin in citrus is contained in the white part of the skin  the pith or "albedo"  plus the membranes between the segments and the seeds. So if you really want some super-jelling pectin stock in large quantities, that's what you'll use. But, the pith is also bitter, so there is a tradeoff, which is why some "gourmet" commercial jam-makers settle for less quantity and use only the membranes and seeds. You can find the formula for citrus pectin if you scroll down the page at the site link; it's an old document from 1931. I hope this helps. Happy preserving, Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Citrus Pectin

I've made apple pectin for the first time last August. From what I had read, you want unripe apples to get the best pectin. So that is what I used - unripe apples from my old apple tree. When I get my bushels of apples in the fall, and am making tons of apple sauce, I save the peelings and cores and I make apple syrup. I follow the directions for peach honey, except I use apples, and I boil it to syrup consistency instead of honey consistency. Here is a link that might be useful: Directions for Peach Honey

I'm an old wineo! I free style wine on the fly... been doing it for years and never had any that was not drinkable. I've bought fancy wine with french labels.. good stuff but I've made far better. I prefer not having sulfides in my wine... cleaner taste and no pickled tummy feeling after drinking. Most of my wines these days have an apple juice base... just cheap and easy to come by. Handful of dried blueberrys into a fermenter of apple juice wine and it looks like this! That is Lulu my offical wine inspector. No wine made in my kitchen that Luna Looski does not personally approve. Yeah I'm single so my house is cluttered... not bad for someone that works 6 or 7 days a week for endless years. I still have a gallon of that wine... no sulfides and has not gone bad yet. You can see a few of the blueberries floating on top and the rest on the bottom. Wine is easy... anyone one interested should give it a try. That jug was 4 gallons of cheapy store bought no preservative on sale apple juice, 4lbs corn sugar (wine store), handful of acid blend (wine store), handful of dry blueberries (walmart cereal section), and one packet of wine yeast (wine store). All in all about $10-12 for 4 gallons of wine running about 12% alcohol. I did not hydrometer it, I did not rack it, no heating pad, no adding sugar to keep the ferment going, lazy person wine to the max. Certainly no campden tablets!... yucky. Three gallons juice into the fermentor. Boiled the other gallon of juice to mix in the sugar and acid blend. Dumped hot juice in with the cold juice. Sprinkled yeast on top of the warm juice and corked it with a bubbler lock. Six months later I started pouring it off gallon/half gallon at a time for drinking. Mix with seven-up or faygo moon mist soda pop when I want it sweet. Noooo you can't add sugar after it quits bubbling to sweeten it... as my buddy attempted. He did not understand the yeast is alive and will start fermenting again blowing bottle corks in the process. Btw... wine yeast like bread yeast will not hurt you and is full of B vitamins... if a little gets in your glass drink it down like a health tonic!... most of it sits on the bottom until you attempt to pour out the last quart.. by then you won't care if it has yeast... *hic*. As for the hab jelly! I opened the fridge jar because I got curious. It has jelled and tastes great! Two slices of jelly toast and probably another before I head off to work second shift.

OK Helen... Here's mini jam for Dummies. :-) It's soooooo simple. PECTIN: Get some green apples. That's under ripe, NOT ripe green cooking apples. Wash em (don't peel or core), quarter em, throw em in the kettle. For each pound of apples add about 2 cups of water and 1 TBS lemon juice. Cook the stuff for about one hour. I cooked my first batch until it was like applesauce... several hours. It's not as good as the batch I cooked until just soft enough to mash it all up. Put through a food mill or mash up with your favorite mashing device. Dump it all in a jelly bag or a strainer lined with a couple double layers of cheese cloth. Leave it dripping overnight. THAT'S IT. If you want to preserve it, heat it up and put in appropriate size jars. Process in BWB for 10 minutes. I did most of mine in 1/2 pint jars so I could do 1 cup of jam at a time. For my meager 1/2 cup of berries I used 1/2 jar of my pectin. TO MAKE JAM For acid fruits put this in a pan: 1 cup cut up fruit 1 cup homemade pectin 3/4 cup sugar (For low acid fruit, add 1 tsp lemon juice per cup of fruit. I made peach jam this way.) Bring the mixture to a boil. I punch my timer when it boils. Boil until it's jam, about 8 to 10 minutes. I find keeping a spoon on top of ice cubes, using my stir spoon to drop a teaspoon full onto the cold spoon, waiting a few seconds until the test cools down, and THEN dripping it back into the kettle makes it easier to know when it's ready. When ready it'll sheet from the spoon rather than drip, drip, drip. NOTE: -You don't have to use a jelly bag or cheese cloth. It just makes a clearer pectin. -There is absolutely no 'apple' taste to the jam, which seems odd when half the jam is apple juice. -You'd think you'd end up with a couple of cups of jam but I end up with just a bit more than the amount of fruit I use. -I save my lemon and lime rinds in the fridge. I just quartered what I had and threw them in. Let me know if you try it and how it works for you!