Does Pectin Go Bad?

I have often wondered what the shelf life of pectin is and even though I don't have a definitive answer to that question, I do know that pectin can go bad.    By 'bad', I mean that it'll get old and lose it's jelling power.    I know this for a fact.

I got some bulk pectin on sale last winter for 1/2 price and I couldn't pass it up.  When I went to use it this year, I noticed it had yellowed some and had some clumpies in it.   I ignored it and used it anyway and batch after batch of jam came out too thin.   I finally threw the old pectin away and opened a new batch, which, of course, works beautifully and has made fantastically jelled jam.

So, now you know.     Pectin can go bad.   If it's yellowed or has started to clump, try one small batch.  If it isn't as thick as you like, then do yourself a favor - pitch the old stuff and get some new. 

[And don't feel bad.   It's only pectin.]

Grape Jelly from Store Bought Juice

Jelly!   Real jelly!   The kind you can see through. And it holds its shape just like store bought jelly  And the color - it's gorgeous.

And I didn't have to squish the grapes and strain anything because the nice grape juice manufacturer people did it for me. 

I love them.

This is grape jelly you make yourself from frozen juice concentrate from the store.   I got the stuff with no added sugar or preservatives or anything but grape juice. Then I used my basic recipe for making jam by proportion.

Jelly Proportions for firm jam - fruit, sugar, pectin
www.rurification.com

• 1 cup fruit juice
• 1 tablespoon low sugar pectin per cup of juice
• 1/2 cup sugar per cup of juice

I've extolled the virtues of low sugar pectin before.   I like it because I control the amount of sugar that goes into the jam and I still get the jell I want.   I've made this jelly with all Splenda before and it works great and tastes terrific.  In fact, you don't have to use any sugar at all.

You can use juice made from frozen juice concentrate [which a nutritionist friend tells me is better for you anyway because more of the vitamins are intact] or you can use juice in a can or bottle or jar or juice that you've done up yourself. 

It's important to start with juice that has No Added Sugar.   Sweetened juices mess with the pectin and you can't get a reliable jell.   Don't do that to yourself.  

You can start with whatever amount of juice you have.  Measure it out and then once you know how many cups you have, figure the pectin and sugar and make your jelly. 

It's easy.

You can make a big batch or a small batch. 

Don't use more than 6 cups of juice at a time per batch.   I like to use 4 cups per batch.  Put the juice and pectin in a pot and bring to a hard rolling boil that you can't stir down.  Boil hard for 1 minute.  Add sugar and return to hard boil.  Boil 1 minute.  Ladle into jars.

Yield:  For every 2 cups of juice I start with, I get 2.5 cups of jelly.   

The Lowdown on Low Sugar Pectins

There are a lot of pectins out there.    It can get really confusing.

Here's a quick run down of the very basic types that I have found here in southern Indiana:

Liquid pectin:  Certo
Liquid pectin is not interchangeable with powdered pectin.   I'll do a post about liquid pectin later.

Powdered pectin [regular, classic, full sugar]:  Ball Classic, Sure-Jell, Dutch Jell All Natural
This is the pectin our grandmothers used.    It's easy to find and requires a lot of sugar - often a lot more sugar than fruit.  The Ball Classic Pectin recipe for strawberry jam calls for 5 cups of crushed berries and 7 cups of sugar.    You must use that much sugar to achieve a good jell.   These pectins work because they bind the acid in the fruit to the sugar.   Less sugar, less jell.

Powdered pectin, Instant for freezer jam:  Ball, Mrs. Wages
This pectin is newer, developed especially for freezer jams.
 
Powdered pectin lite, low or no sugar:  Ball, Dutch All Natural, Mrs. Wages, Pomona's
Most of these are newer pectins developed so that you can get a good jell in your jam without using a lot of sugar.  In most cases, you can use no sugar at all.  These pectins bind to calcium instead of the sugar. [Which means if you have a lot of calcium in your water, you'll get a firmer jell.]

Here's a list of even more pectin brands out there [though it is not complete, either]: Pickyourown.org

In this area of southern Indiana, I can no longer find Sure-Jell pectins and most stores carry only the Certo liquid pectin and Ball powdered pectins.    However, when I checked my local Amish store, Freedom Country Store, in Worthington, Indiana,  I found a much better selection of pectin, some in bulk, at much better prices.

Less sugar is better
My recommendation for pectin is go for the low sugar pectins.    Skip the classic pectins because they require too much sugar.   Jam just tastes better if it's mostly fruit. 

This means you're going to have to pay attention to the pectin labels.    A lot of those boxes and jars look alike.   [This is why I have 4 jars of freezer pectin in my pantry instead of 4 jars of low sugar pectin.   It will probably take me 4 years to use that much freezer pectin.] 

So, what do you need to know about low sugar pectins?

1.  Interchangeability.  First off, not all powdered pectins are interchangeable!   Some are, some aren't.  In my experience, these powdered pectins are interchangeable:   Sure-Jell low sugar pectin, Ball low sugar pectin, Dutch Jell All Natural Lite pectin.

These are not interchangeable: 
One box [1.75 oz] of Ball, Sure Jell or Dutch All Natural will jell 4-6 cups of fruit
One box [1.75 oz] of Mrs. Wages will jell 12 cups of fruit
One box [1oz] of Pomona's will jell 16 cups of fruit.

2.  Bulk packaging and pricing:  It's not always possible to find each of these brands in bulk.  Shipping these days is going to add a wad to the final bill.   Do the best you can with what you have available.

Beware!  Not all bulk packaging receives bulk pricing.  Take a look at the Ball pricing - it's a hair more expensive to buy the 'bulk' jar.   It costs me $.57/cup of fruit to go with the 1.75 oz box.  It costs $..58/cup of fruit to use the 'bulk' jar.   They're selling the convenience of flexible sized batches, not giving consumers a break in pricing because of bulk packaging.   Also, those jars are only about 2/3 full. 

3.  Comparison in pricing to regular/classic pectins.   In general, the low sugar pectins cost about 70% more than the classic pectins.    Of course, that will be more than offset by the money you'll save on sugar.  Add in the fact that low sugar jam is so much better tasting and better for you than the other stuff and low sugar pectin is well worth it.   [Note:  Ball Classic Pectin in the jar costs about the same as Ball Low Sugar pectin in the jar - no savings there at all.]

Here's a price comparison between Sure Jell regular pectin and Sure Jell low sugar pectin for a typical batch of my jam [with 4 cups of fruit, low sugar pectin and 2 cups of sugar] and the equivalent with classic pectin and the 6 cups of sugar that it would require.  Sugar around here, in 20lb bags costs about $ .30/cup.

Sure Jell low sugar pectin for 4 cups of fruit:   $2.99
2 cups of sugar:  $ .60
Total cost for low sugar pectin and sugar for 4 cups of fruit:  $3.59

Sure Jell  regular pectin for 4 cups of fruit:  $1.78
6 cups of sugar:  $1.80
Total cost for regular pectin and sugar for 4 cups of fruit:  $3.58

Since I like the low sugar jam so much better, it's worth one extra penny per batch to use low sugar pectin if that's all the low sugar pectin I could find at the store. 

Here's the same comparison with my favorite low sugar pectin, which I can get in bulk close by:  Dutch Jell All Natural Lite

Dutch Jell All Natural Lite low sugar pectin for 4 cups of fruit:   $ .92
2 cups of sugar:  $ .60
Total cost for low sugar pectin and sugar for 4 cups of fruit:  $ 1.52

Dutch Jell All Natural Regular pectin for 4 cups of fruit: $ .52
6 cups of sugar:  $1.80
Total cost for regular pectin and sugar for 4 cups of fruit:  $2.32

It's a lot cheaper per batch to use the bulk Dutch Jell All Natural Lite pectin - the low sugar pectin and sugar cost 35% LESS than the regular pectin and sugar, even though the low sugar pectin by itself is more expensive.  [Keep in mind that we haven't calculated the cost of the fruit, just the pectin and sugar.]

4.  Additives:  There's more than pectin in some of your pectins.  Check the ingredients.   Most pectins contain a form of dextrose, which is a sweetener with fewer calories than sugar.  It is also used as a thickener.   Citric acid is used to raise the acidity of the jam so that the pectin can do its thing and jell your jam.  Other acids are:  Calcium ascorbate, which is a combination of calcium and ascorbic acid or Vitamin C; and Fumaric acid, an organic acid found in nature.  Potassium Sorbate is a preservative.   Monocalcium phosphate is an inorganic leavening agent that causes foaming.   I've listed the ingredients of each brand of low sugar pectin below.

Low Sugar Pectins: The breakdown
Here's a handy table that breaks down the cost according to how much each type of pectin costs per cup of fruit that it jells.   These prices do not include shipping.   I've also listed the extra ingredients, so you know what's in your pectin.

Ball Low Sugar:   1 Tb will jell 1 cup of fruit
cost [box]: $ .57/cup of fruit jelled
cost [bulk jar]: $ .58/cup of fruit jelled
ingredients:  dextrose, fruit pectin, citric acid, calcium ascorbate

Sure Jell Low Sugar:  1 Tb will jell 1 cup of fruit
cost [box]: $ .74/cup of fruit jelled
ingredients:  dextrose, citric acid, fruit pectin

Dutch Jell All Natural Lite: 1 Tb will jell 1 cup of fruit
cost [available only in bulk]:  $ .23/cup of fruit jelled
ingredients:  dextrose, pectin, citric acid

Mrs. Wages:  1 Tb will jell 3 cups of fruit. [1 box = 12-15 cups fruit]
cost [box]:  $ .25/cup of fruit jelled
ingredients:  polydextrose, fruit pectin, maltodextrin, fumaric acid, potassium sorbate, monocalcium phosphate

Pomona's:  1 Tb will jell 4 cups of fruit.  [1 box = 16-20 cups fruit]
cost [box]: $ .25/cup of fruit jelled
cost [bulk]: $ .23 / cup of fruit jelled
ingredients: low methoxyl citrus pectin. [In separate packet for low acid fruit] monocalcium phosphate

So.   Now you know.   When you see pectin that you want to use, get a lot of it and store it.  If you don't have a lot of choice to begin with then make the best decision you can based on your needs at the moment, which might be 'I'm here at this store right now and that's the only pectin I can get'.   That's a great reason to use a certain brand of pectin.   
  

Blueberry Lime Jam

We ran out of this jam.   It's K2's favorite.   She eats it on almost everything.

There was weeping.

There was wailing.

There was general consternation.

So I made more.    It's what moms do.  






Here's my typical recipe for a single batch of jam.    This generally makes about 2.5 pts of jam plus a bit.

Blueberry Lime Jam- small batch

• 4 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 cup water
• zest and juice of 1 lime.
• 3 T Ball or Dutch-Jell  low sugar pectin
• 3-4 cups sugar

Combine the fruit, water, lime juice, zest and pectin.  Bring to a hard rolling boil that you can't stir down.   Boil hard for 1 minute.  Add the sugar.  Return to a hard rolling boil.   Boil hard for 1 minute.  Ladle into jars.   Process 10 minutes for canning.  

However.    And it is a big However.

Yesterday I was all out of my Ball and Dutch-Jell low sugar pectins.   I did have a box of Mrs. Wages low sugar pectin that I picked up to try last time I was at Freedom Country Store in Worthington - it's our local Amish store.

One package of that stuff will gel 12 cups of fruit.   I had 15 cups of fruit and wanted only a soft jell, so I did four batches at once with one package of Mrs. Wages.     Worked perfectly.    Here's what I did:

Blueberry Lime Jam - with Mrs. Wages Pectin

• 15 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen [around 2 bags of frozen blueberries]
• 4 cups water
• zest and juice of 4 limes.
• 1 package of Mrs. Wages pectin.
• 12 cups sugar

This batch made 10.5 pints of jam.     I used my regular method of jam making.

1.   Combine the fruit, water, lime juice, zest and pectin.
2.   Bring to a hard rolling boil that you can't stir down.   Boil hard for 1 minute.
3.   Add the sugar.
4.   Return to a hard rolling boil.   Boil hard for 1 minute.
5.   Ladle into jars.   Process 10 minutes for canning.  

I've been thinking a lot about pectins lately.   I'm doing a cost-comparison post and will have that up soon.

Pectin 101

Pectin is what makes your jam and jelly jell.  It occurs naturally in a lot of fruit [see below], but as fruit ripens, it loses the pectin and if you want to make a jam that jells, then you need to add pectin to it.

There are a lot of different brands of pectin out there and each brand may have different types of pectin for different types of jam: Instant pectin for freezer jam, regular pectin which requires a lot of sugar, low/no sugar pectin, liquid pectin.

In the past few years, pectin has widely become available in bulk packaging, making it easier than ever to make small batches of jam requiring less pectin than contained in the traditional, three-tablespoon envelopes of pectin. Bulk pectin is also handy for recipes with low-pectin fruit like strawberries and nectarines. Instead of splitting a new envelope, you can just add an extra tablespoon or two of pectin from the jar.

Be aware that not all pectin brands are alike. Each company has its own formula and they cannot be substituted blindly for each other. If you switch brands, watch your first batch carefully and note whether it jells as well at that amount as your other pectin did. In addition, liquid pectin and dry pectin cannot be substituted without changing the whole jam procedure.

I regularly switch between Ball and Dutch Jell low sugar brands. For four cups of fruit, the Ball Low Sugar recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of pectin; the Dutch Jell Lite recipe calls for 1/3 cup rounded of pectin. That’s between 5 and 6 tablespoons and quite a difference from the amount of pectin Ball calls for. In practice, I have found that I can use much less Dutch Jell than they recommend, but I usually need a bit more Ball pectin than they recommend.

How do you know how much to use? Follow the guidelines in the recipes included with your pectin. If you like a softer jell, then use less pectin next time. If you like a harder jell, then use more. Take notes or write them on the side of your pectin container with a pen or marker.

Robin's Rule of Thumb for Pectin: Use 1 Tablespoon of pectin for every cup of fruit in the recipe. Don't use more than 6 cups of fruit in a batch. This generally works for even lower pectin fruit like pears. If you aren't sure, then make a small batch, see what happens and adjust accordingly for your next batches. Use more pectin for low pectin fruit. Use less pectin for high pectin fruit.

Low Pectin Fruits require the addition of a full measure of pectin or a very long cooking time. Don't skimp on pectin when you're using these fruits for jam.

• apricots
• blueberries
• cherries
• elderberries
• figs
• guava
• nectarines
• peaches
• pears
• Italian plums
• pomegranates
• raspberries
• rhubarb
• strawberries 

High Pectin Fruits can often be turned into jam or jelly without adding extra pectin. Note: the riper the fruit, the less pectin in it. Use 20-25% under-ripe fruit if you want to make jam with no added pectin.

• apples
• citrus peels: limes, lemons, etc. with the white pith and seeds. [You can put the pith and seeds in a tea ball or bag during cooking so you can remove them from the finished jam.]
• cranberries
• currants
• elaeagnus [autumn olive]
• Eastern Concord grapes
• loganberries
• plums, not Italian
• quince 

Here's another site with a lot of great info on pectin: http://www.pickyourown.org/pectin.htm

Pectin - Ball Real Fruit Pectin

Not all pectin brands are equal.   They have very different processing requirements.   REMEMBER THAT!  You can't substitute one brand for another and use the same instructions.

I use Ball Pectin.   Ball has a new pectin product out. 

UPDATE 3:   I now use Dutch Jell All Natural Lite.   Way cheaper!

It's a quasi-bulk jar of pectin, 4.7 oz, designed so that you can adjust the amount of pectin easily to the amount of jam you want to make.   If you only want 2 jars of jam, you only need 1 1/2 Tablespoons of pectin.     The old packets of pectin were 3 Tablespoons.

It's a good idea.   But it's going to take some getting used to.  

First the bad news.   The lovely paper insert full of recipes that used to be in the box has now been replaced with a sorta-sticky wrap-around label.

No more fun recipes.   No more freezer jam recipes. 

I looked online to find out if they had a recipe page, but I can't find one.   Maybe they want you to buy the Ball Blue Book. [ If you don't already have one, get it.  It's chock full of handy information]

UPDATE:  I finally found the BALL recipe site here.  Pay special attention to the instructions and the type of pectin called for.  I noticed that some of them looked odd and then realized that they called for liquid pectin.

UPDATE 2:  They moved the recipes page to here.

UPDATE 4:  My recipes are better.   Check out A Simple Jar of Jam on my sidebar.  You can get a free preview by following the link.  You can buy the book from my Etsy site:  www.rurification.com

[If you want more recipes, you could go over to the Sure Jell site, but remember those cooking directions will NOT work with Ball Pectin!]

Another thing that REALLY bugged me was the quantity of pectin inside the jar when you open it up new.

I opened this fresh jar just before I took the pic so you can see that NEW, it's only just over half full.   The first jar I opened was the same. 

That is total marketing B.S.  And as a consumer, it really ticked me off. 

Now for the good news.

Ball makes great pectin and I love it because you can use as little sugar as you want.  Make sure to get the Low or No-Sugar Needed Pectin.   That's what I'm showing here. 

Photo: Rose petal jam [recipe tomorrow!] that I made with it today.

Here is the basic process for using BALL pectin.

1.  Stir the pectin in the cold fruit/juice or water.   NO SUGAR YET.  Really.  I'm serious.  Don't go there.
2.  Bring to a boil and boil HARD for 1 minute.   I always do 2 minutes just in case.
3.  Add the sugar.
4.  Bring to a boil again and boil HARD for 1 minute.   I always do 2 minutes just in case.
5.  Put in sterilized jars and process to seal.

A lot of old recipes have you adding the pectin to the sugar.   That doesn't work with Ball.   I know.   I've tried it.    Use Ball pectin the way I described above.

Notes:

• Hard boil means it's boiling so hard you can't stir it down.   Keep stirring.   If the boil goes away, it's not boiling hard enough.   When it boils even with you stirring, it's a hard boil. 
• Sometimes you need to soak your fruit or whatever overnight with the sugar.   Don't worry about that.  DO NOT stir Ball pectin into the sugar/fruit mix.  [I know.  I tried it.]   Dissolve your Ball pectin in cold water instead.  3 cups is nice and you can boil it down quite a bit as you're getting it to the hard boil stage.
• Add the sugar only after the Ball pectin has been activated by the 1 minute hard boil.    It doesn't matter if you're adding just dry sugar, or petals and sugar that have been sitting overnight.  I've done it both ways with success. 
• To convert an old recipe, just re-arrange the order in which you add things.   Add the pectin to cold fruit/juice or water, boil, add sugar or fruit/sugar mix, boil.    You'll still be able to use those recipes - you'll just need to adjust your thinking a bit.
• Take the opportunity to reduce the sugar you use in those old recipes.   You'll probably find that you can cut out 1/3 of it and not even notice.   Play around.  It's an excuse to make more jam. 

Good luck!  Let me know how this works for you.