Freezing Apple Cores/Citrus Skins

[harveymt]

I've seen a recipe for 'Compost Jelly' which is basically a recipe for apple cores and skins left over from making other preserves. I havent made any of my own but my wife eats a lot of fruit. I was wondering if I could save it up till I had enough then make some jelly from them before they go on the compost heap?

Could I have a bag in the freezer and just throw the bits and pieces in to keep them?

Im going to have a go but just checking to see if anyone had tried it or had tips for freezing bits of fruit.

Cheers.

[weekendwellies]

Not heard of this one before. I imagine that the citrus skins would be ok, but due to the high water content, fruit would go mushy on defrosting in my opinion.

[harveymt]

But would it matter if the fruit went soft as it'll be strained for the final jelly anyway?

Hmmm, I'll give it a go over the next few weeks and see what happens. I'll report back my findings!

[Lovage]

It is said that freezing leads to a breakdown of some of the pectin in fruit so you may not get a brilliant set.
Having said that I regularly freeze black and red currants and make jam/jelly later in the year. The set has been fine but these are high pectin fruits

I would be wary of usuing citrus peel if it was not organic - it's often treated with fungicides, waxes and even colouring!

Look forward to hearing how it works out

[FoxHillGardener]

I did exactly that; froze the bits as I went along until I had enough and then made the jelly. I used apple cores and peel along with the leftover bits of juiced limes, lemons and bits of orange peel. I used the recipe in the River Cafe Preserves book.

It set fine and is very nice. I don't think it matters how mushy it goes after defrosting as it just gets boiled up and then filtered anyway.

Happy jelly making

I've seen a recipe for 'Compost Jelly' which is basically a recipe for apple cores and skins left over from making other preserves. I havent made any of my own but my wife eats a lot of fruit. I was wondering if I could save it up till I had enough then make some jelly from them before they go on the compost heap?

Could I have a bag in the freezer and just throw the bits and pieces in to keep them?

Im going to have a go but just checking to see if anyone had tried it or had tips for freezing bits of fruit.

Cheers.

[stella]

Any chance you could post the recipe please sounds very useful
thanks

[FoxHillGardener]

Here you go

Compost Heap Jelly

makes 3 225g jars

500g apple cores and peel
500g citrus fruit peep cut into 1cm shreds
granulated sugar
Juice of 1 citrus fruit (optional)

Put apples cores, peel and citrus peel in saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to simmer and cook slowly for 45-60mins. Turn into scalded jelly bag or muslin and leave overnight to drip.

Measure strained liquid and weigh out 450g of sugar for every 600ml of juice. add fruit juice if using. Bring liquid to boil, add sugar, stir until dissolved, then boil rapidly without stirring until setting point is reached - about 10 mins

Remove from heat and stir, always in the same direction [I actually missed this bit out but seems ok. I thnk it just makes it clearer, mine's a bit cloudy] until all surface bubbles have disappeared. Pour into sterilised jars and tap their sides / swivel to remove any remaining bubbles. Seal. Use withing a year.

[harveymt]

Made the jelly a couple of days ago. I ended up with about 900g of citrus peel. I had a lot less apple cores than that so made it up with 3 or 4 chopped up apples. I also have a lot of sweet preserves at the minute so I added some ground up cloves into this for something to use with cheese or other savoury dishes. I added about a heaped teaspoon although next time I'd add less. Tasted fine when I added it but I think it has cooked out a little and increased the clove taste, maybe a little too strong, but my wife likes it.

That was the first time I made a jelly. It ended up with bubbles in it that didnt seem to go away. They're still there in the jars. Any ideas as to what I've done wrong or what I need to do next time?

[Flummery]

Bubbles could be over-vigorous stirring once the setting point is reached. When the jelly is ready to set it becomes very thick so the air you stir in can't get out!

I've just made a jelly with blackberries collected over several weeks, just a few at a time, last year. I added the juice I'd previously cooked out and dripped, from some rosy crab apples and I froze the juice till I was ready to do something with it. It's a great idea to freeze bits of stuff till you've got enough.

[Sanjo]

I'm bumping this thread in the hope that any of those who made the jelly may be able to help me.
I have started collecting the apple cores and peel plus windfall plums and freezing and now I want to put some citrus peel in the bag. I was under the impression that when making marmalade for instance, the pith should be discarded as it would make the mix bitter but I cannot see any reference, either on here, or on any of the other web sites I found. I may have missed it but could somebody please confirm for me that the citrus skin can go in whole or should I peel carefully and remove it. Many thanks

[scarey55]

I make orange and lemon marmalade and I use the whole of the peel, skin and pith and it all gets boiled up until soft. I don't know how it would work in jelly but the marmalade always tastes pretty good.

[Sanjo]

Thanks Scarey, that was just what I wanted to know. I'll start saving the whole skins.

[Hilary B]

Citrus skins can be bitter, but then in marmalade that is what you want (in moderation) and the sugar balances it. That pith includes a lot of pectin. Important detail, citrus skins take AGES to soften, and once you have added sugar, they won't soften any more......

[Suky]

If you are making jelly then it doesn't matter so much as you will strain out the fruit solids anyway. Try not to have to higher proportion of citrus though as you will get a better set with more apple.
If you have made bramble jelly then you could also add the pulp of the blackberries to the mix to get the last bit of taste and colour from them. I might try this to see how it works.

[Sanjo]

I've just posted on "what I did today" and will add on here if I may.
I did the Compost Heap Jelly today, in fact, I didn't finish it till 9.30ish by the time I had washed the walls, stove and sink down!
I had been saving apple peelings and cores, grapefruit and lemon skins, the odd blackberry from the garden when there wasn't enough to do anything with and added them to the left over pulp from my elderberry jelly and sieved blackberries for the freezer which I did this morning
Even after sieving there still seemed plenty of colour left so I thought, like Suky, that it might add a nice colour to the jelly. Well, it did and the jelly is very tasty.
Like an idiot I didn't get the recipe out until I had stuffed all the ingredient into the preserving pan. The recipe called for 500g each of apples and 500 g of citrus.
I ended up with over 7lbs of fruit, not of an even ratio of fruit to citrus and on top of that I chucked in the pulped elderberries and blackberries!! Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
As I am out all day tomorrow I could only let the pulp drip through the jelly bag for about 4 hours and I think I would have got more out of it. I got 8 full jars and it set better than the Elderberry jelly I made before it.
Well worth doing but next time I shall make it in smaller amounts.
I've made a total of 21 full size jars of jelly today and I am shattered!! but they look so good with their little labels.
Thanks to HarveyMT and Foxhill for asking the original question and posting the recipe as I never would have thought of it. I hate waste so I feel quite smug!
Mind you, I am worried as I found myself looking at the leftover pulp wondering what I could do with that!!