Episode: 2366
Title: HPR2366: Making Bramble Jelly
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2366/hpr2366.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 01:45:51

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This is an HBR episode 2,366 entitled Making Bramble Jelly and in part of the series Cooking
It is hosted by Tony Huma, Tony H1, 212 and in about 11 minutes long and Karina Clean Flag
The summer is, this is a show on Making Bramble Jelly
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Hello, how could public radio listeners? This is Tony Hughes in Blackpool in the UK.
Good to be back for another show. It's that time of the year when I turn my hand to foraging
and making jelly from local wild blackberries or brambles what we want to call them.
The season started early this year here in the UK so I've already produced over 60
jars of bramble jelly this year with more to come. Thankfully I have people who donate old
jam jars for reuse during the year which I store for this very time.
Not had any problems with jars for storage of the jelly once it's been made yet.
First off on an issue of hygiene before filling all the jars
they've been delabeled and on the day of production they're given another wash in hot soapy
water, rinsed to clean off the soap and placed in the oven and cooked for at least 15 minutes at
250 degrees centigrade which is about 300 Fahrenheit to give them a sterilization.
I also put all the lids into a pan with water and bring these to the boil and then keep them
at a high temperature until just before use for exactly the same reason. So all the lids and the
jars are sterilized at least once generally a couple of times. So in making the jelly the first
thing you do is once I've got the collected fruit it gets a wash to remove any bits of debris and
any wildlife that might be hiding in it. Some people say washing a little bit of the
saline solution but I just use fresh water. That seems to be the trick.
Put way the fruit and just to give me an idea how much fruit I've got and put it in the pan
with just about 50 mils of water for each kilo of fruit. Give it a mash with a vegetable mash
and add a lemon for each kilo of and a half of fruit. This is for the acidity and the
pectin that you get out the pith. So I cut the lemons in half, throw them in the pan and bring
all the fruit to the boil to break it down. You can add and I sometimes find wild plums so you can
add other fruit. Plums are particularly rich in pectin so sometimes you've got a source of wild
plums. I had about 10% of the mix of plums so that that can also give a pectin rich juice.
But generally if I haven't got access to plums it's lemons. Once the fruit's boiled down and
leave it to cool a bit. Remove the lemon skins and make sure you scrape out all the
pith from the inside of the skin to get all that nice pectin and then put that in the pot.
Now once you've done this the fruit needs to be strained it might you might want to bring it back
just warm it up a bit because that thing's it out a little bit to help you strain it but you can
do it from cold. You can use a, now professionals would use a jelly bag. I tend to just use a very fine
strainer and I'm not worried about it not being dead clear and see through it so I actually use
something to push the juice through the strainer to get the juice out. But if you're going to do it
properly and you want a nice clear jelly and you get a jelly bag I'm sure you can go on the
internet and find the sources of jelly bags and you pile all the mixture into a jelly bag over a big
pan and leave it for as long as 12, 18 hours for all the juice to come out. And then once you've
got this the juice you can reduce the juice by about just to concentrate it a little bit.
You then measure the remaining juice to calculate and what sugar you're going to need to make the jelly.
I use the equivalent of 1 kilo of sugar to about each liter of juice or if you're in US
be 1 pound of sugar for a US pint of juice. Basically the weight of the liquid is about the same
weight as the sugar that you're putting in. Now find a pan big enough that when you put the juice
and once the sugar's added the liquid will only come up to about half way
because once the juice starts boiling it expands and you don't want it boiling over on your stove.
Bring the juice back up to the boil and at this stage add the sugar stirring until
the sugar's dissolved. This cools down the liquid again so you've got to once you've got all
the sugar in and dissolved you're going to have to continue to heat it and bring it back up to
the boil. At this stage you need to keep the juice boiling until it's come up to jam temperature
which is around about 105 degrees C or 220 Fahrenheit. If you have if you have one you can use a
jam for the monitor but I don't so I use a mixture of visual clues and that is when the boiling
you get a rolling boil with lots and lots of small bubbles on the surface and I also keep
a plate in the freezer to test the jelly as it cooks. Once you've got it up to jam temperature
cook it for about 10 to 15 minutes and then do your first test to see if you've got a setting point
and like I say you put a small blob of the jelly onto a cold plate that you've had in the freezer.
Leave it for about a minute and then run one of your fingers through it to create a little gap
in between the juice as you go and if it wrinkles up at the end and the juice that's on either side
of where you've created the gap doesn't to roll in to kind of fill the gap up. You pretty well where
you've got a you've got a you've got up to setting point. If it doesn't if the juice starts to
come in to close that gap and it doesn't quite wrinkle up nice and go quite high at the end then
carry on boiling for another five minutes and repeat it until you've got a setting point so
each stage after the five minutes test it again if it's ready then you can switch it off if not
another five minutes. So once you've got up to a setting point remove the pan from the heat
and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes. During this time you can get your lids ready. I
drain the lids from the hot water and I lay them out on a clean towel with the inside of the lid
upwards so that it's not being contaminated by anything that's on the on the towel and if you
using preserving I use lids jars and lids that are from store bought jams and chutneys and things
and these tend to have the little pop up seal in them but if you're using preserving jars
just follow the instructions on how to sterilise them and what to do when you when you put in them on
and sealing in the jelly. As it's jelly you don't need a fancy jam fun always it pulls really well
from a jug just ensure that you've got a jug that's clean and dry as the heat from the jelly will
still be quite high or ensure that it's sterile when you use it but if you paranoid about infection
just sterilise it and make sure it's a heat proof jug and sterilise it in the same way as you
prepare the jars for putting the jelly in. So all that remains now is to remove a few jars from
the oven at a time filled with the jelly liquid and I've given the panister before you fill the
jug so that you get already packed in evenly distributed in the jelly and you've not got
some thin juice and some thick juice. Put the lids on the jars as soon as you've filled them up
ensuring that they're unfairly tightly you'll need to have some kind of heat proof glove or
something as you tighten because the jars will be very hot and if you've used store bought
jars and lids then you'll possibly have the little security pop up thing that once the jars
open it pops up and you can feel a bounce on it. Now this will still be bouncing when you first
put it on but as the jelly cools that will pop down and that shows that you've got a good seal
on the jar and that your jelly is good to store for quite a while. I've had jelly the
jellies and jams and chutneys that I've made the last well over a couple of years
and with certain things like chutneys the longer you store them the more mature they get and
the better the taste is. So once you've filled your jars put the lids on, place the jars somewhere
to cool and then once they've cooled you can label up with a date of you made it and what it is
and you set to enjoy your own homemade jelly until it runs out or as I do because I make
so much I give some of it away as homemade gifts to friends and family. Obviously this is just my
experience of making jelly or jams. If you want more info about about this these loads and loads
of YouTube videos out there so just go on to YouTube and have a look. So good luck we're making
your own jelly. Bye for now.
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