Miss Wanda HELP!

  • Miss Wanda HELP!

    Posted by skainsgirl on October 17, 2022 at 11:42 am

    I am new to canning. Taught myself how to pressure can in February. That is going well.

    Just learning how to water bath making jellies, jams, and preserves. So far, that had been going well also…until this weekend.

    I have made a couple of batches of watermelon rind preserves. The first was super thick and gooey because I didn’t know I needed to leave a little watermelon on the rind. The second, was perfect! I followed Boots and Bounty Homestead’s recipe. but never quite had 12 cups of rinds. (12 cups rinds, 3-4 1/2 c sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2 tbsp lemon juice)

    But the recipe only makes 2 pints (4 or 5 half-pints). So, I more than doubled the recipe (which I now know is a cardinal sin). I am pretty sure I lost count when measuring my rinds, so for 1, I didn’t have enough sugar or lemon juice. The next morning, they were like water! Couldn’t even use them as syrup. So, I researched how to fix them. Dumped all my jars out. added more sugar and added 2 tbsp of lemon juice for every quart per Homestead Acres advice. Still watery, including the 2 jars that didn’t seal in the fridge.

    What can I do with them? I ended up with 35 half-pints! Is it possible to just make jelly out of it using low sugar pectin? I still have 8 watermelons left and wondered if I could make them like my first batch and add a few jars to each batch after I had cooked them down some first. I am picking up some pint jars today because I don’t need to store 35 half-pints!

    Side note: I made these for my 93-year-old Mama who lights up because it reminds her of when her Mama made them when she was a little kid.

    skainsgirl replied 1 year, 5 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • CrazyDazes

    Member
    October 18, 2022 at 7:00 pm

    I haven’t ever made watermelon rines. So I can’t help. Looks like some good answers here. Ask Ms Lippy. I think she makes some.

    • skainsgirl

      Member
      October 18, 2022 at 7:12 pm

      Thanks, I will ask Miss Lippy.

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