Homemade jelly in the instant pot

Making homemade apple jelly has always been wonderful to have when the fall and winter months hit. But now you can do it even easier with your instant pot. If you aren’t one to enjoy apple jelly you could always make some up and give them as gifts for the holiday season. It is prime apple time right now in New York state so we are all about the apples right now.

What Do I Need to Make this Apple Jelly?

You will need the following ingredients to make this delicious jelly for yourself. Use either Gala Jazz or Granny Smith apples. Make sure to skin, wash, dice, and remove the seeds. White sugar, honey, lemon juice, cornstarch, and water will complete your recipe list of ingredients. Don’t worry about the measurements as I have included them in the recipe card below.

What is the Difference Between Jelly, Jam, and Preserves?

In 1913, before the at-home refrigerator. It was a rarity to find a strawberry in the winter or an apple in the spring—unless it had been kept as a preserve. Jellies, jams as well as preserves were found by diligent fruit-eaters of days gone by. They used this as a method of making sure the fruits kept fresh when not in season. Once the option to freeze and refrigerate came about, fresh food that was in season in warmer climates was able to make a trip to another location for others to enjoy.

This helped with getting rid of the need for the preservation of the olden times. Although there was no longer a need for the older methods of food storage these became traditional elegance. Fruit jellies, jams, and preserves have lasted beyond becoming outdated and are popular delicious spreads for slices of bread, sandwiches, and many other foods. What are the differences in preserving these three very similar approaches when it comes to preserving fruit?

The most significant difference between jelly, jam, and preserves is how much of the original fruit is needed to make them. Jelly has the smoothest consistency and is made by crushing fruit and discarding the solid chunky leftovers. This method leaves only the fruit juice, which is then mixed with pectin and heated to form the gelatinous spread. Jam is made similarly by crushing fruit, but this combination leaves in most of the whole pieces of the fruit’s makeup and seeds (if they’re small enough and ok to eat) to give it an easy to spread consistency. Out of the three types, preserves use the most of the fruit and are littler pieces of fruit mixed with sugar to keep them fresh and combined with syrup or jam to contain them.