The results are IN!
We had a jelly tasting session today – thanks to 9 people (including my 7 year old) who were willing to come be my guinea pigs…
The method:
Five jellies were tested by 9 people. There was no forced order to tasting, but I did label them A-E (with the A=the No sugar jelly, B=lower sugar jelly and C-E was the low sugar jelly). Since I had a small number of testers, I wasn’t able to enforce a mixed the order of the samples (to avoid order effects), but knowing that people respond strongly to sugar and sweet tastes, and that the one with blackberry probably had the strongest flavor, I labeled that A and put it on the left of the counter, figuring people would try that first. I served the jellies with a mild, not too salty, stone ground wheat cracker from Trader Joes, hoping that wouldn’t influence the taste too dramatically.
The jellies were:
- No sugar 1/2 white and 1/2 red grapes blend, made with Ball FruitJell Pectin.
- A lower sugar “Mash up” of no sugar 50-50 blend and a low sugar 2/3-1/2 blend made with Ball FruitJell
- A low sugar blend of 2/3 white grapes with 1/3 red grapes, made with SureJell Pectin, rejelled with some Ball FruitJell
- A low sugar blend of 1/2 white and 1/2 red grapes, made with SureJell Pectin, rejelled with some Ball FruitJell
- A low sugar blend of blackberry and white grapes (from 2005), made with SureJell Pectin, rejelled with some Ball FruitJell
Each guinea p… I mean… tester filled out a questionnaire regarding the taste, color and texture of each jelly. The scale was from 1 (meaning loved it) to 5 (hated it), with 3 being neutral. They were also given an opportunity to specify their favorite and least favorite jellies, as well as to leave some comments.
The results:
The overall favorite with 6 vote: Low sugar blackberry-grape (E) jelly made from my sister’s juice from last year.
Second overall favorite: tie with the 1/2-1/2 (D) and 2/3-1/3 (C) low sugar varieties (with 2 votes each, someone voted twice)
The least favorite (with 7 votes) was the no sugar 1/2-1/2 blend (A). The mash up (B) got 2 votes for least favorite.
The highest ratings on taste went to low sugar blackberry-grape (E), followed by the low sugar 1/2-1/2 blend (D). Most people liked the taste of these the low sugar jellies, although two testers (as well as myself) felt they were too sweet. (I would hate to try the results of the full sugar recipe which calls for double the amount of sugar!!!!)
The color of the blackberry-grape blend (E) was the best received (averaging out to a score somewhere between love and liked), followed by the 2/3-1/3 low sugar mix (C) , with the 1/2-1/2 (D) blend coming in third, which were both liked.
And for texture, all of the low sugar jellies (the blackberry-grape (E), 2/3-1/3 low sugar mix (C), and the 1/2-1/2 (D) tied as being “liked.”
One tester gave the following detailed comments:
- Bitter, and too light in color. Not enough flavor. Bitter aftertaste. Would use in cooking only.
- Good consistency, still too light in color. Flavor it a little bland
- Very nice color. Higher sugar content most resembles honey. Good consistency – not much more grape flavor than B.
- Very nice consistency – nice clarity. More flavor than all the other previous ones. So far my favorite
- Love the color. Consistencie is ok, but not as good as D. This was my favorite overall.
Future work:
At first I was thinking it was the Ball Fruit Jell that gave the no sugar and lower sugar versions their cloudy appearance (note to self, put some pictures up on the site). Ball Fruit Jell contains “Dextrose, pectin, locust bean gum and xanthan gum” whereas the Sure Jell has”Dextrose, Fruit Pectin, Fumaric Acid (for Tartness) and Sodium Citrate.” I am sure the locust bean gum and xanthan gum are to help the jell well… jell (how many times have you read those ingredients on ice cream?), so I thought maybe that makes it cloudy.
In retrospect, however, I used the Fruit Jell when I cooked the jellies the second time around to help them set without having to boil them to death. So likely it’s not the pectin that is the reason for the cloudineses. I think it’s just the lack of sugar. One way to test that would be to use only the Fruit Jell with sugar to see if a grape jelly made with that comes out clearer.
As for the tartness of the no-sugar kind – I wouldn’t be able to tell you if it’s the grapes or the pectin which is making it tart. The grapes are not super sweet off the vine – particularly if you eat the skins. And I really did try to squeeze out every ounce of juice. One tester, who makes wine, told met that if you squeeze the grapes too hard, you start to break the shell of the seeds, which effects the flavor. Maybe next year I’ll press the grapes a different way (using a chinoise or other method, not my juicer which could be making the juice more bitter.). My sister did not use a juicer last year for making the blackberry-grape juice.
The other thing I’d like to try, but not much of, is using splenda for a no-sugar version of the jelly, just to see how that works out with respect to cloudiness and taste. I would also like to try either version of the pectin with less sugar than is called for – it may require more boiling to get the jelly to set, but I really would like to find some way to make a much lower sugar version of the jelly (maybe 1/4 of the “normal” amount of sugar, i.e. 1/2 the amount in the “low sugar” recipe).
Finally, blending the grapes with other types of fruit appears to be a big win and so experimenting with different blends may be in my future. I’d also like to try an all red-grape variety of the jelly, if the vines cooperate next year.
Conclusions:
Over all the jelly making and testing was a success. I have quite a number of things I can try next year and I certainly know what *not* to try again (i.e. the no sugar version). Meanwhile I have a LOT of jelly to eat and give away as gifts 😉
Thanks to all my testers and my dear wonderful hubby who has put up with me having fun being a scientist in the kitchen again.
