I made this recipe and I followed it to a T. This is the first time making jelly. I wake up this morning and all of the jelly in my cans set and they're very jelly like (first photo). Then there's two cans (second photo) where the jelly is straight liquid and hasn't set. Any idea why two haven't set but the rest did? https://www.ballmasonjars.com/blog?cid=pepper-jelly-recipe
by fell_4m_coconut_tree
6 Comments
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Forgot to mention: it’s been 10 hours.
What brand of pectin did you use?
It *shouldn’t* make much difference but I’ve seen that using Certo with a Ball recipe can end up like this for some reason.
Did you double your batch by any chance?
What brand of pectin did you use?
Was the pectin expired?
The most simple answer is that different jars/contents were inconsistently mixed or experienced different time, temperature processing.
The pepper is a *lot* more chunky than “finely chopped”. I wonder if it affected the gelling. You can see the obvious differences in sizes of the pepper in your photo versus the ball recipe one. The sizes perhaps allowed for more moisture to remain after cooking the jam.
Not necessarily relevant to the question and situation, but I’m also concerned about your headspace….jams and jellies should have 1/4 inch from the rim (the top of the jar, hidden under the band) and your photo is showing more than an inch. This can affect proper sealing and could lead to spoilage as a result.
Saying you followed a recipe “to a T” and yet two visuals showing otherwise gives concern over other steps in the process.