I am wondering if any of you canners have ever used a pectin substitute. I am not anti-pectin, just cheap. I know that certain jams can be made without pectin, but I would like to make some preserves and not have to break down too much of the fruit with over cooking. Thanks!
I've made strawberry with chia seeds, but a)chia is probably more expensive than pectin and b)I can only find refrigerator jam recipes that call for chia.
Check at www.pickyourown.org I think they're the ones who knows EVERYTHING about camming/freezing/etc.
At the National Center for Home Food Preservation, you can download (free) the entire USDA Guide to Home Canning. In section 7, (Jams and Jellies) there are directiosn to make jelly without added pectin on page 7.5 and making jam without added pectin on page 7.6. The site has a ton of other recipes, too.
Growing up I never ate store bought jelly, my parents made all our jelly. My parents never used pectin (except the watermelon jelly incident, which we will not speak of it was so gross! LOL). Instead they used tons of sugar and added apple and maybe a little lemon juice or citrus peal to whatever jelly flavor they were making. As an adult I found out the apple and citrus works because it's high in natural pectin and acid, plus the apple doesn't overpower whatever other flavor you got going the citrus adds a nice fresh splash of flavor to whatever you already have....
