Guava Jelly

Submitted by Honeybeee

"Tastes wonderful on toast! My mother's recipe and its foolproof. The beauty of it is that there are no fixed measurements. I make my jelly sometimes with just four guavas. Other times, it may be for 5 lbs...the measurements of all the ingredients increase or decrease depending on the liquid extracted."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 15mins
• Ingredients: 4
• Yields: 2 medium sized jars

ingredients

• 12 very ripe guavas
• 5 cups water, enough to cover the fruit
• sugar
• lime juice or lemon juice

directions

1. Dice guavas into one inch cubes.
2. Place in a large saucepan and cover with just enough water to cover the fruit well.
3. Cover and cook till guavas are very tender, about half an hour.
4. Cool.
5. Cover a large bowl with a muslin cloth and invert fruit onto the cloth taking care to catch the liquid that drips through the muslin, into the bowl.
6. Gather the four ends of the cloth and tie a knot and hang this'bag' for about four hours and collect all the drippings into the bowl.
7. LIGHTLY squeeze out any juice left in the cloth.
8. Discard pulp.
9. Measure the liquid.
10. For every cup of liquid add one cup of sugar and one tablespoon of lemon juice.
11. (Eg. if there are four cups of liquid you would need to add four cups of sugar and four tablespoons of lime/lemon juice.) Put this mixture back on fire and bring to a boil.
12. Lower heat and cook, stirring constantly (as the liquid tends to boil over), till the liquid starts coating the spoon thickly and the juice/jelly drips from the spoon in jointed drops.
13. Let stand for half an hour and pour into jars while still warm.
14. Cover and seal.

Reviews

[mummamills]

this nearly got 1 star, cause I made it and it looked right, but it was still liquid when it got cold :( SO, I put it back on the heat and simmered for ages , and then I bottled it, and OMG it is great. the colour, the smell and the taste is perfect!!! and for an added thrill, I mixed some with Chrissy O's wato's chillie sauce, and I reckon I could sell that magic drop for about $100 an ounce!!! thanks so much for fab and easy recipe!!

 

[Robyn H.]

Made this once as written, and thought it was a good base recipe, but way too sweet and lacking for interest. In all fairness, we can't grow guava around here so lord knows how fresh/fragrant the ones are that get shipped here. But... second time, I made some variations, and my husband said it might've been the best thing he ever put in his mouth! 1. I added a small finger of ginger to pot with the first boil. Quartered it to expose the flesh, but left it big enough to remove easily later. 2. I didn't do the four hour strain thing. Took it right from the stove and poured it through a fine mesh strainer, and used a rubber spatula to push most of the pulp through the mesh, leaving the seeds and ginger behind. Took a grand total of five minutes. 3. I used roughly half the sugar. 4. I subbed lime juice for the lemon. 5. After boiling it down to the right consistency, I added orange zest and red pepper flakes, and simmered about five minutes longer to bloom the flavors. I never had quava jelly before, so might be missing the mark for nostalgia factor... but seriously, with these changes, it was absolutely incredible!

 

[woelfers]

Almost identical to my mother's recipe. Except, using a thermometer, cook to 223 degrees F. Think all will find this helpful. Nadya

 

[owyn L.]

This started out great, but I had a blonde moment and cooked it too high for too long...so it turned into hard candy. Tastes pretty good, but is not jelly, obviously.

 

[anna15.june]

Does the jam thicken a lot on cooling ? The last time I made it and bottled it, it was so hard in the bottle. I had a tough time taking it out and had to eat it like candy but the taste was excellent. I m trying it out again today so please advise. How much jam would I get for one kilogram of guava Regards Anna