Hi everyone. I have had a surplus of feijoas, so thought I would make some feijoa jelly from the skins.
All the recipes have 1 cup of sugar to 1 cup fruit juice. What are your thoughts on reducing this to 3/4 cup sugar? Does this effect the setting of the jelly, or does it just take longer, as the liquid has to reduce more? I don't really know the science of jam / jelly making. Over the years, I have reduced the sugar in my cakes and biscuit recipes from my Mama and Nana, and I was just wondering, what was the reason for the 1:1 ratio for sugar and fruit juice.

Have fun!

I was interested in the answer to this as I too use 1:1 for feijoa jelly making.

After a bit of reading, It seems like yes you can, but as you say, you will likely need to boil longer which will reduce the amount you get - which begs the question, does the concentrate end up with a very similar sugar/syrup ratio than if you'd just started at 1:1? It seems it can also affect shelf life and very much can affect setting. Although how much of a reduction would be needed to adversely affect the end product, I don't know..

Well, I am going to try it today. I have had the bag hanging all night, and have a pot full of green grey juice. I know the ratio has something to do with pectin, and the chemical reaction between the sugar and the pectin causes the jelly to set. I will be adding lemon juice.

I found this link where she reduced the ratio to 3/4 a cup, so it was more tart (which I dont mind) and the jelly set.

[jeanniehayden.blogspot.co.nz]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2016 11:51PM by Ruth.

That's encouraging. I use lemon juice too, so that is always going to help the set. I like a more tart jelly too - I may well give it a try when I make my next batch. Please post your results

I managed to get 20 cups of feijoa juice - so using the maths, 20 x 0.75 = 15 (I did 3/4 cup of sugar to each cup of juice (I had to go buy more sugar). 15 cups, of sugar, so I added one more for luck. (16). I also added the juice of 2 lemons. I also added the rind of the two lemons.

I split the juice between two large pots - 10 cups in each, and 8 cups of sugar in each. In one pot I added a broken cinnamon stick, and the other pot, 1/2 teaspoon ground vanilla pod. I just let it simmer away for a while,(I dont know the time, as I was doing other stuff inbetween) until the back of the wooden spoon began to set. I like to stir the jelly occasionally, and then turn the wooden spoon upside down and rest it on the rim of the pot. I also added a drop of red food colouring.

The result. The urchins have already eaten a jar! It set, but not too firm. One of the urchins really like it, as it isn't as sweet as jam. It's not tart either. The cinnamon has a nice finish to it. I haven't tried the vanilla one yet, but the urchins say it looks like specks of dirt through it. Peasants!

Try it with lots of root ginger and lemon - magic! Janet

Good to know it set enough with the reduced sugar. I once made a batch of feijoa jelly with a vanilla bean scraped into it. I thought the result tasted rather like barley sugars.. not necessarily unpleasant, just not what I was looking for. I hope you enjoy yours more