I’m having trouble finding jelly in shanghai. china bambina likes jam but doesn’t like the fruit. I also happen to have a bread machine. does it make sense to try make my own jelly? (Or should I just stock up on my next trip to the US 
)
any doper experiences?
We make our own jelly, and you don’t even need a bread machine or a canner or anything. Follow the directions in the pectin box, and then pour the stuff into jars. We keep the jars and lids in a boiling water bath for a few minutes before filling. Then, seal 'em up, set them upside down for 5 minutes, and turn them right side up until the jar lids make a little ping noise. Makes great jam/jelly, keeps very well, and doesn’t need any equipment. My family’s been making it this way for generations.
It comes down to if you can buy pectin the key to making jelly. Different juices will give different firmness to the jelly, so don’t be supprised when a batch is runny. You can still use it.
If your fine with making apple & whatever jellies, then the pectin isn’t even neccesary. Apple peels and cores contain natural pectin.
That would be apple butter. All fruit has some pectin.
Is there anything you won’t make in a bread machine? 
If you can get canning jars, pectin, and the 100% fruit juice (not ‘fruit drink’) of bambina’s choice in town, it’s dead simple to make. If you have to get the pectin shipped, it weighs nothing, so should be cheap.
Let’s just say I don’t have a lot of kitchen appliances. I can probably even find some pectin in Shanghai so might give this a shot.
Butters are opaque while jellies are clear. It’s perfectly possible, although slightly more difficult to make a jelly out of apple cores & peels. But apple butter is good too.
while searching, I’ve found recipes for wine jelly. Anyone tried making these? Results?
What about freezer jam instead - no cooking required
Whenever I get exceptionally hard, tart apples (usually for making pie or apple butter) I keep the peels and freeze them. Then, when I’m making jelly from some low pectin fruit I add some peels to the juice and sugar while it’s cooking. Makes usually runny jellies very stiff, and I don’t have to use the overly high amounts of sugar required by commercial pectin recipes. I actually have a favorite tree that grows by a long abandoned house–I get the apples every year because they’re incredibly flavorful, very hard and extremely tart. Makes the most amazing apple butter in the world. Of course, since the tree gets no maintenance I have to cut out a fair amount of insect damage and whatnot, but it’s worth it when I finish a batch of apple butter and use whatever won’t fit into the jars to top some French vanilla ice cream, yum!
::wanders in::
Did somebody call me? No? 'mkay…
::shuffles out::
