3.5cupsSugar or as needed (use 1 cup per cup of strained juice)
Instructions
Cut the apples into pieces including the skins and seeds.
Gently mash the rowanberries with a potato masher or something similar.
in a wide pot of 3-4 quart size, combine the apples, ginger, berries and water and bring to a simmer, stir, then turn the heat to low and cook, uncovered covered for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. Don't mash the apples.
Carefully strain the liquid into a strainer lined with a double thickness of cheesecloth or a jelly bag and allow to drain for a few hours. Don't squeeze the liquid from the cheesecloth unless you're ok with cloudy jelly.
Discard the spent apple-berry mix.
Combine the reserved liquid (you should have 3-4 cups. along with 1 cup sugar for each cup of reserved, strained liquid).
Doing set tests
Chill a small metal bowl or similar in the freezer for doing set tests. I use small metal as it freezes the fastest.
Mix the liquid and sugar, then bring to a boil, turn the heat to medium, and cook until the temperature starts to hover around 220F. Begin doing set tests a little after the mixture hits 220F. 223-5F is usually perfect for me, but let the set test be your guide.
For the set tests, pour a teaspoon of jelly into the frozen bowl. Once you can see a gentle wrinkle on the top of the of the test surface when it cools you’re good, beat in the lemon juice or citric acid and pour the jelly into sterilized jars. Screw on lids and rings, and allow to cool. The jars will naturally seal themselves.
Cooking and reducing the jelly will take about 25-30 minutes. I start to test the set around the 20 minute mark.
Depending on the pan I’m using and how high the sides are, I may move it halfway off the burner to allow me to still use high heat without the pan overflowing. Cleaning up jelly overflows is, sticky and not fun.
Video
Notes
Apples
You want apples that have a good amount of natural pectin here, so use green ones like granny smith, or slightly unripe apples. For a 100% wild version, use crab apples.