Homemade Pectin- easy and (nearly) free

Still more apples...

I've been preparing lots of apples as we get into Autumn and although the peels and cores can go to the chickens or on the compost heap, it's nice to make more food out of the scraps first.
You can make cider vinegar from them, but we make so much cider ourselves it's easiest just to let that turn into vinegar for the chickens and cooking (I buy it for preserving as I haven't got round to checking the acidity).
I make pectin from the peels and cores instead, and freeze it in small bottles ready for making jam or jelly from fruits low in pectin instead of buying jam sugar or buying a commercial pectin. Pectin improves the set and I use it in strawberry jam especially, but use it in any recipe that calls for pectin.
Pectin in apples is highest in under ripe apples (early windfalls), crab apples and the cores and peel of ripe apples (the sweeter the apple generally the lower the pectin), so all free and/or likely to be discarded.

Pectin

Chop either crab apples, under-ripe apples or use the peel and cores from prepared apples (or a mixture of any of those), place in a pan and add enough water to almost cover.

A mixture of crab apples, windfalls and apple cores and peelings

Cook on a low heat until very mushy.
Strain overnight through a jelly bag or muslin lined sieve or colander.

Draining apple pulp

If you want to you can test the strength of the pectin. Not essential, but fun and quite satisfying if you have methylated spirit in the house already.
When the strained juice is completely cold put a teaspoonful in a small amount of methylated spirit (I think this is called denatured alcohol in the US and Australia? We use it as fuel for cooking stoves like Trangias here). The liquid pectin should form globules when you lift it out with a fork if it's strong enough to set jam.

The teaspoon of strained juice goes cloudy and is solid when you lift it out of the methylated spirit with a fork

You can can this but I tend to freeze it in useable amounts. You can compost or feed the leftover pulp to the chickens (but maybe not the bit in the methylated spirit). If you store (natural) wine corks in the leftover meths (alcohol) they make good firelighters.

To use: Add 4-6 tbsp of homemade pectin to every cup of prepared juice/jam, which is equivalent to 75ml of pectin to 250ml juice (300ml to 1L).

It's not very precise because obviously the pectin content of the fruit varies, and how much water you use and how long you cook it for, but the meths test gives you an idea of how well it will set.