Information from "Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving" (The longer version of Ball Blue Book):

Jellies made without added pectin need to cook longer, have lower yields per quantity of fresh fruit used and may have a slightly caramelized flavor. Most fruits do not contain enough natural pectin and/or acid to easily convert to jellies without the addition of pectin. Apples, crabapples and Concord grapes are the exceptions.

The biggest problem in making jellies with no added pectin lies in determining when the jelly is done. A gel stage test is essential. These jellies must be monitored very closely to avoid over- or under-cooking. Undercooked jellies that do not set may be used as sauces and may sometimes be redeemed with a second boiling. There is no remedy to save an overcooked product.

Before cooking any long-boiled jelly recipe, it is a good idea to determine whether your fruit juice has sufficient levels of pectin and acid to allow it to form a gel when you boil it with sugar.

ACID TEST
Mix 1 t. lemon juice, 3 T. water and 1/2 t. sugar. Taste this mixture and compare it to the taste of your fruit juice. If the juice is sweeter, adjust the acid by adding 1 T. strained lemon juice for each 1 c. fruit juice.

PECTIN TEST
In a closed container, gently shake 1 t. fruit juice with 1 T. rubbing alcohol. DO NOT TASTE!!!! Adequate pectin is present when the mixture forms a solid jelly-like mass that can be picked up with a fork. If this mass does not form, the fruit juice lacks enough natural pectin to form a gel in a long-boil jelly recipe. (end of quote)
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Another test for pectin content:
-Cooking test - Measure 1/3 c. juice and 1/4 c. sugar into a small saucepan. Heat slowly, stirring constantly to dissolve all sugar. Boil rapidly until the syrup comes off a spoon in one sheet. Pour the syrup into a clean, hot jar or bowl and let cool. If a gel forms, the juice contains proper amounts of pectin.

--You can't interchange liquid pectin with powdered forms of pectin. Adding an acid improves the gel. Adding 1 T. lemon juice or 1/8 t. citric acid to each cup of fruit juice to increase the acidity will help form a jel.

--The best pectin amounts come from JUST-ripe fruit. If the fruit is under- or over-ripe, there won't be adequate pectin to form a gel.

--Not sure about using Clear Jel for this application, but the link below may help.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Using Clear Jel

Grainlady, do you have an idea of about how long to cook apple jelly when you're not adding any pectin? I made some concord grape yesterday. I cooked it down a ton, but it's still sort of runny.

I did wind up adding powdered pectin to the apple pectin juice. Using the homemade pectin increased the batch size so I had an extra jar warmed but it made two extra jars. I didn't get the last jar warm enough so it didn't seal... the other four pints had jelly boiling inside them when I took them out.

I got curious so I opened the unsealed jar. It is jelly! A bit thin but it spreads on toast like jelly... just melts a bit from the toast heat. Taste is right on! Hot but not deadly hot... I nuked the vinegar/fruit/peppers before adding them to the boiling pectin to make certain they were fully cooked. I knew I did not want raw habenera flavor.. those Caribbean Reds are wicked hot... not that the Burpee orange habs are mild by any means.

Connection problems today... raining and I'm on satellite internet. Going to try making the jelly again using just homemade pectin. I have endless apples and plenty of hot peppers.

You will need to do a gel test, and this recipe in "Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving" may work for you as a guideline.

"Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil hard, stirring frequently until mixture begins to sheet from a metal spoon, about 25 minutes.. Remove from heat and test gel. If gel stage has been reached, skim off foam. Quickly pour hot jelly into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to boil and process for 10-minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5-minutes, then remove jars, cool and store."

Ingredients for this recipe:
4 c. apple juice
2 T. lemon juice
3 c. granulated sugar

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: NCFHFP - Making Jelly Without Added Pectin

Michael, good luck with the "no commercial pectin" on that jelly, it's the only one I still buy Certo for because I haven't gotten it to jell otherwise.

I've been playign with the idea of replacing part of the vinegar with lemon, wrapping the peels/pitch/pits up in a cheesecloth, although I'm not sure what that would do to flavor. Lime might be better....

Apples in place of the apricots might help too, especially since you have access to all those apples.

Good luck, and happy canning!

Annie

I already know if the second batch with homemade pectin does not set I'm using it as a wing sauce! Leaving for work early today so I can stop and get an order of wings... be munching jelly wings on my way down the road.

Crazy what tastes good.. onions, vinegar, habeneras? In a million years I could not have guessed what was in that jelly.

Thanks Annie for helping me find a pot of gold! While picking apples I found some grape vines that are loaded heavy with wild grapes... already two quarts of hand pressed juice in the fridge. Think I'll play the lotto this week... just feeling lucky.

: )
lyra

Thank you!!

Michael/Lyra, you are ever so welcome, and you reminded me that I actually got ripe habaneros from my plants this year, what a great year for peppers here.

I really like the stuff too, and I'm a heat wuss, but some cream cheese and a bit of "gold" on a bagel is amazing.

Wow, and grapes too? You did hit the jackpot, buy that lottery ticket!

Annie

Whether jelly is possible without commercial pectin is a function of a lot of factors including the variety of the fruit and growing conditions. So depending upon the area of the country and the weather that season it may be possible to jell all kinds of fruits beyond what Ball claims.

I routinely make strawberry jelly which is supposed to be "not possible" without commercial pectin but it presents no problems. Also, unlike Ball, I would argue that if a no-commercial-pectin jelly tastes over-cooked, it's human error not an inherent flaw in the method.

One advantage of a no-commercial-pectin preserve is it requires less sugar than a recipe which uses regular powdered or liquid pectin. I know that sounds counter-intuitive but that's the way it is.

Jelly can take up to 6 weeks to set so regardless of what you see when it first comes out of the canner and cools, a little time on the shelf may reveal something entirely different.

Carol

I was shocked at how much sugar the regular pectin calls for. Seems like it would be inedible if you used sweet, ripe fruit.